Tim Kaine Factsheet

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On Saturday, Hillary Clinton announced Tim Kaine as her pick for Vice President of the United States, selecting an experienced hand to join her at the bottom of the ticket. Here are some quick facts to get yourself acquainted with one of our options for VPOTUS.

1. He was born in 1958, is an alumn of the University of Missouri-Columbia and Harvard Law School. He’s married to Anne Holton, and has three children.
2. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Tim Kaine eventually settled in Richmond, VA. He was elected Mayor of Richmond in 1998, Governor of Virginia in 2005, and to the United States Senate in 2012.
3. He was a very early supporter of Barak Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008, and according to Politico at the time, was “very, very high” on Obama’s shortlist of potential running mates.
4. Kaine has focused on issues such as climate change, education (his wife, Anne Holton, is Virginia’s Secretary of Education), and efforts to reduce unemployment among veterans.
5. He is a Catholic, who personally opposes abortion, and has promoted abstinence-only education in Virginia, as well as Virginia’s informed consent law, which requires women seeking the procedure to receive a medically unnecessary ultrasound.
6. Despite his personal opposition to abortion, he has voted to protect women’s access to the procedure in the Senate.
7. Kaine is a gun-owner, but has consistently been given an F rating by the NRA (headquartered in Virginia), by supporting things like background checks, limits on magazine size, and other gun control legislation.
8. In the Senate, Kaine is a member of the Armed Services, Foreign Relations, and Budget Committees, as well the as the Special Committee on Aging.
9. He was considered a ‘safe’ pick for Clinton, and it’s been speculated that adding a relatively moderate Democrat to her ticket won’t do enough to placate more progressive supporters of Bernie Sanders.
10. Kaine has served as a Mayor, a Governor, and a Senator — an accomplishment matched by only 20 people in the history of the United States.