Tim Kaine, the 58-year-old Democratic US Senator for Virginia, has made the cut for Hillary Clinton’s shortlist for VP choices. He would be considered Hillary’s “safe pick.” Kaine endorsed Clinton’s presidential bid way back in 2014, campaigning actively for the presidential candidate in seven states during primaries.
So who is Tim Kaine?
Tim Kaine was born on February 26, 1958, in St. Paul, Minnesota. Kaine is a University of Missouri and Harvard Law School Graduate. After law school, Kaine practiced law in Richmond for 17 years, where he specialized in fair housing policies and was also a lecturer for the University of Richmond School of Law. He was elected Mayor of Richmond in 1998, until being elected Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 2002 and later Governor of Virginia in 2006, before he became this state’s Senator. Kaine married Anne Holton in 1984, with whom he has three children.
Here are few things you might want to know about the senator.
- In 2007, Politico reported that Kaine was also very, very high on Barack Obama’s shortlist for vice president, before Obama chose now Vice President Joe Biden. This list also included then-Senator Hillary Clinton of New York. Kaine was the first Governor, outside of Illinois, to endorse Barack Obama.
- He supports gun control. In 2007, following the Virginia Tech shooting, then Governor Kaine signed an executive order intended to prohibit the sale of guns to people with mental disorders that are involuntarily admitted to mental health centers or that are considered to be dangerous.
- Kaine was the first Catholic Governor of Virginia, which complicates his stance on abortion. He personally opposes abortion but at the same time, does not support laws that restrict abortion. On his 2012 Senate campaign website, he says, “I strongly support the right of women to make their own health and reproductive decisions.” Hillary is a firm supporter of abortion rights.
- With an estimated net worth of $1,087,008 in 2011, Politico reported that the potential VP accepted $160,000 worth of gifts while in office between the years of 2001 to 2009, as the Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Virginia. The gifts were mostly for travel and political events and conferences, including an $18,000 Caribbean vacation. The gifts were, however, all legal under Virginia’s lax gift laws.
- Back in 2013, Kaine gave a 13-minute speech in Spanish during the debate on the Senate’s immigration bill. Yes, he is fluent in Spanish. He learned Spanish during a Catholic missionary trip to Honduras, where he spent a year. This actually makes Kaine the first Senator to deliver a full speech on the floor of the Senate in a language other than English. “I think it is appropriate that I spend a few minutes explaining the bill in Spanish, a language that has been spoken in this country since Spanish missionaries founded St. Augustine, Florida, in 1565,” said Kaine during his speech.
