Clinton told supporters the news in a text message and a tweet on Friday evening just after 8 p.m. ET. A former civil rights attorney who won a major redlining verdict against Nationwide Insurance before he launched his political career, Kaine, much like Clinton, offers a quieter version of progressivism than Sanders or Warren, with an emphasis on finding compromise and achieving incremental progress.
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Kaine might also be helpful cleaning up Clinton’s image as being a little, well, “crooked” as Trump is fond of saying. Eh, or maybe it’s a stupid decision and she should have gone with Debra Messing. He was inaugurated in 2006 to become Virginia’s 70th governor. “A Clinton-Kaine administration will push our country further down the path President Obama has led us on and that has made us less safe, less prosperous, and less free”.
Still, when Trump is casting this election as his change vs. Clinton’s status quo, Kaine is squarely part of the Democratic establishment.
“I enthusiastically applaud Secretary Clinton’s choice”.
He was first elected to office – the Richmond City Council – in 1994, and went on to serve as mayor and then Virginia’s lieutenant governor. After they are formally nominated, Clinton and her new running mate are expected to embark on a bus tour to key campaign battlegrounds, similar to the “First 1,000 Miles” caravan in 1992 that took the Clintons and Gores to eight states on their way to winning the White House in November. They’re trying to avoid same optics, especially since one of her assertions in campaign is she is the steady hand more equipped to deal with serious matters of worldwide affairs and national security.
Also, the Virginia senator has a calm and “level-headed demeanor” that will contrast with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s “chaotic” style, Jacobson said.
The announcement came after her “Stronger Together” rally in Tampa, Florida.
Kaine’s tenure as governor (Virginia is the last state that still limits its governors to a single four-year term) was marked by the deadly shooting at Virginia Tech in April 2007.
The Democratic convention in Philadelphia starts on Monday.
Kaine has largely compiled a liberal voting record but has some problems with the leftist Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic Party wing.
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The Clinton campaign discussed how to balance their plan to pull the conversation away from the GOP convention – and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s acceptance speech – to her vice presidential pick, according to a source familiar with deliberations.
