Clinton picks Sen. Tim Kaine for VP

By Rob Howard
Associate Editor

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton announced today that she has chosen Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine as her running mate. Sen. Kaine is the former Governor of Virginia and served as Chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Senator Kaine has a strong record of supporting LGBTQ rights. As Governor, he campaigned against the Virginia constitutional amendment that banned legal recognition of same-sex relationships. He issued an executive order to ban discrimination against state employees on the basis of sexual orientation.

As Senator, he joined many Democrats in signing the bipartisan amicus brief to the Supreme Court that detailed their belief that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional. In 2013 Kaine was a co-sponsor of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which passed the Senate, to ensure that workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation would not be tolerated. (The House failed to act on ENDA.)

In 2014 he joined more than 175 Senators and Representatives in a letter to President Obama calling on him to issue an executive order banning contractors from receiving federal government contracts unless they have a policy prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Also in 2014, he celebrated marriage equality in Virginia, saying, ““In letting the Fourth Circuit's decision stand, the Supreme Court has given loving couples across the commonwealth the freedom to marry. I join countless Virginians in celebrating the end of the discriminatory constitutional ban that has denied same-sex couples this fundamental right. Today, we have taken a major step toward Jefferson’s ideal that ‘all men are created equal.’"

According to TheHill.com, Kaine gets some blowback from the left on his views about abortion. As Governor, “Kaine…supported a requirement for parental consent for an abortion — with an exception if a judge waives it - as well as ‘informed consent’ rules, where a provider must give a woman information about adoption and other options.

“He has also supported a ban, with exceptions for the life and health of the mother, on the controversial late-term procedure that critics label ‘partial-birth’ abortion.”

However, his Senate website says, “I support the right of women to make their own health and reproductive decisions. We all share the goal of reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortions. The right way to do this is through education and access to health care and contraception rather than by restricting and criminalizing women's reproductive decisions.

“For that reason, I oppose efforts to weaken Roe v. Wade. I believe strongly that access to contraceptives should not be the decision of a for-profit company’s leadership and am disappointed in the Supreme Court’ ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. I am an original cosponsor of the Protecting Women’s Health from Corporate Interference Act to restore the contraceptive coverage requirement guaranteed by the Affordable Care Act.”

In the Senate, he serves on the Armed Services, Budget, Foreign Relations and Aging Committees. He is Ranking Member of the Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee and the Foreign Relations Subcommittee on State Department and USAID Management, International Operations and Bilateral International Development.

His Armed Services work focuses on crafting smart defense strategy in a changing world. On Foreign Relations, Kaine works to enhance American diplomatic leadership, with a special focus on the Middle East and Latin America.

“Kaine’s resume is nearly as impressive as Clinton’s: as a popular governor and senator of the major swing state of Virginia, former DNC head, fluent Spanish speaker, and apparently ethically-spotless family man, Kaine checks off all the essential boxes,” according to NewAmericanPerspective. “There is no doubt whatsoever that he could step in as President on Day One, if required…. He is, in a word, an articulate, center-left party man - and one who is loyal to Hillary Clinton.”

In addition to his qualifications, Kaine has the added benefit of coming from a state with a Democratic governor. If the Clinton-Kaine ticket wins in November, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, is certain to appoint a Democrat to replace Kaine when he resigns his Senate seat to take his seat as Vice President.

Kaine is fluent in Spanish, and was one of Hillary Clinton’s earliest supporters in her bid for the 2016 nomination. He has served well as a Clinton surrogate during the primary campaign. And he is a skilled politician, which got him on President Barack Obama’s “short list” of potential Vice Presidential nominees in 2008.

“Combined, the Clinton-Kaine ticket would have a total of two decades in major executive and legislative roles,” according to NewAmericanPerspective.com, “and would have the strongest formal credentials of any ticket in the modern era.”

Kaine, 58, grew up in Kansas City. He was educated at the University of Missouri and Harvard Law School and started his public service career by taking a year off from Harvard to run a technical school founded by Jesuit missionaries in Honduras. After law school, he practiced law in Richmond for 17 years, specializing in the representation of people who had been denied housing due to their race or disability. He also began teaching part-time at the University of Richmond in 1987.

He was first elected to office in 1994, serving as a city councilmember and then Mayor of Richmond. He became Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 2002 and was inaugurated as Virginia’s 70th Governor in 2006.

The Senator is married to Anne Holton, who currently serves as Virginia Secretary of Education.

The Gayly – July 22, 2016 @ 7:18 p.m.