Tim Kaine

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Tim Kaine (2019) Signature of Tim Kaine

Timothy Michael "Tim" Kaine (born February 26, 1958 in Saint Paul , Minnesota ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party . Since January 3, 2013, he has represented the state of Virginia in the United States Senate . He was governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010 and led the Democratic National Committee , the party organization of the Democrats , from 2009 to 2011 . He was Hillary Clinton's vice-presidential candidate , with whom he lost in the November 2016 presidential election.

Family, education and work

Tim Kaine's childhood home

Tim Kaine grew up as the eldest of three brothers in a family of Scottish - Irish descent in Overland Park , part of the Kansas City metropolitan area . His father Al ran a blacksmith and hardware store there , where his sons helped out, and his mother Kathleen was a home economics teacher. Catholic educated, Tim Kaine completed his secondary education at the Jesuit Rockhurst High School in Kansas City (Missouri) . He studied economics at the University of Missouri and then law at Harvard Law School . Meanwhile, he supported Catholic missionaries as a Jesuit volunteer in Honduras for nine months in 1980/81 , which he described as a formative experience; since then he speaks fluent Spanish . After completing his law degree, he worked as a lawyer in a law firm dealing with civil rights issues and campaigned for death row inmates and for fair housing law .

Kaine has been married since 1984 to former Richmond juvenile judge Anne Bright Holton, a daughter of former Governor Virginia A. Linwood Holton , who was appointed Virginia's Secretary of Education by Governor Terry McAuliffe in January 2014 and resigned in July 2016 to support her husband in the presidential campaign support. You have three children and live in a neighborhood in the Afro - American city ​​of Richmond, Virginia , where people of different skin colors live together . Kaine also has good relations with representatives of this minority through the choice of her parish, St. Elizabeth, of which mostly African American members belong.

Political career

Rise in Richmond

Caine's political career began when he was elected to Richmond City Council in May 1994 . He subsequently became mayor of the city in 1998 and made a name for himself through Project Exile , which reduced the number of shootings in Richmond by approximately 40 percent. In 2001 Kaine was elected lieutenant governor of Virginia after the favored candidate Emily Couric withdrew due to illness . This office, which he took in early 2002, also included the presidency of the Virginia Senate .

Governor of Virginia

Governor Kaine speaking in 2007

In November 2005, Kaine ran for governor of Virginia and won 52 percent of the vote against then Attorney General , Republican Jerry Kilgore . It not only won the urban regions in the north of the state, which reliably elect democratically, but also prevailed in rural areas. The inauguration took place on January 14, 2006 - for the first time since Thomas Jefferson 1779 - in what is now the museum city of Williamsburg , because the governor's official residence, the Capitol in the capital Richmond, was renovated. Since the Virginia constitution does not allow two consecutive terms of office of a governor, he could not run again in the 2009 gubernatorial election and resigned from office in January 2010.

During his time as governor, Kaine implemented few legislative initiatives, as he had to deal with Republican majorities in state parliaments ; so his attempt to raise taxes failed. But despite the importance of tobacco growing for Virginia, he enforced a general ban on smoking in restaurants. It was part of his style that he paid constant attention to government affairs and their media representation and even took care of detailed questions, for example by being informed about every item in the state budget, by writing 145,000 e-mails in four years and by regularly checking the state government website himself changed. Meanwhile, he accepted corporate gifts of over $ 200,000, which was criticized as part of his running for vice presidency, as the acceptance of personal gifts for his Republican successor, Bob McDonnell, led to a conviction for corruption. The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump then nicknamed Kaine "Corrupt Kaine" in July 2016. The funds - permitted by law in Virginia - however, in Caine's case, almost never went to personal property, but were paid for work-related expenses such as travel expenses; no influence on his political decisions has been established.

Chairman of the Democratic National Committee

Kaine became the first high-ranking politician outside of Illinois to announce in February 2007 that he supported Barack Obama's 2008 presidential nomination . He was under discussion as a possible vice-presidential candidate, as the popular Virginia politician could have helped the candidate Obama win this possibly electoral state, but was not selected because of his lack of foreign policy experience at the time. After his election as US President , Obama proposed Governor Kaine as the new Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC). On January 21, 2009, he replaced Howard Dean in this position , established a nationwide network of financiers and party sizes he considered, and made it a point to speak to twelve volunteer campaign workers each week. During his tenure, the Democrats were defeated in several key gubernatorial elections and in the 2010 mid-term election , in which they lost a majority in the US House of Representatives.

US Senator for Virginia

Senator Kaine (left) in March 2013 with then Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel

On April 5, 2011, Kaine announced that he would run for the successor to the no longer-running Democratic US Senator Jim Webb in the November 2012 election . At the same time, Kaine announced his resignation as chairman of the DNC. His deputy, Donna Brazile , served on a temporary basis for a month before President Obama named Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz from Florida as Caine's successor. Kaine won his party's nomination and, after one of the most expensive campaigns of the year, won the Senate election against Republican George Allen , one of his predecessors as governor of Virginia. He received 53 percent of the vote, more than Obama in the presidential election in Virginia.

Kaine began his Senate mandate on January 3, 2013. There he focused on foreign and security policy and is a member of the committees for the armed forces and external relations . In 2013, he was the first elector in the US Senate to speak entirely in Spanish in support of comprehensive, non-partisan immigration reform . After being defeated as Hillary Clinton's running mate in the presidential election in November 2016, he announced that he would run for re-election as a senator in 2018 and not be interested in running for US president in 2020 .

After Carly Fiorina canceled an initially considered candidacy against Kaine, Republican Jim Gilmore - who, like Fiorina, had participated in the 2016 Republican presidential primary - said he was interested in running against Kaine. In the Republican primary, Corey Stewart, who is supported by President Trump and who represents controversial positions such as the intensified fight against illegal immigration and the preservation of memorials for Confederates , finally prevailed . Stewart lagged far behind Kaine in fundraising and polls, who tried to oppose the current political climate with a positive, optimistic campaign. Kaine was able to compete without internal party competitors. With almost 57% of the vote, he won the main election in November 2018 as the clear favorite .

Applicants for US Vice President 2016

Kaine at a campaign appearance in Arizona in November 2016

Kaine voted for Hillary Clinton as the Democratic presidential candidate in the 2016 election back in 2014 . After the former foreign minister announced her application in April 2015, Kaine supported her on several election campaign dates. Due to his experience and his origins from Swing State Virginia, he was considered in the US media early on as a possible vice-presidential candidate. On July 22, 2016, Hillary Clinton announced that Tim Kaine was running as her running mate , in what observers have characterized as the safe choice of an experienced, moderate politician.

His direct opponent in this election was Indiana Governor Mike Pence , the running mate of Republican candidate Donald Trump. Caine's virtues were his eloquence, his authentic demeanor and his diverse government experience, which was to be played off against the politically inexperienced opponent Trump. Kaine was seen as a potential helper in attracting white men and middle-class independents who voted below average for Hillary Clinton. He met reservations in the left-wing Democratic camp, which was skeptical of the party candidate after Bernie Sanders ' surprisingly successful primary. In addition, it was doubted whether the friendly and reserved Kaine would appear aggressively enough against the media-savvy Donald Trump in the election campaign.

On November 8, 2016, Clinton and Kaine lost with 232 electoral votes, contrary to most polls and predictions, against the Republican team of Trump and Pence, which received 306 votes. Most of the swing states and some states in the industrialized Rust Belt went to Trump and Pence, while Kaines candidacy may have enabled Clinton's victory in Virginia. After this first electoral defeat in his life, Kaine criticized Stephen Bannon's selection as Trump's chief adviser in the White House and announced that he would establish a supervisory body in the Senate over decisions made by the president.

Political positions

Kaine is considered a moderate democrat who represents the political center and at the same time reliably the party line. He defended the unpopular North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and advocated an acceleration of the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement (TPP), thus taking a position in favor of free trade that was particularly controversial in the 2016 election campaign, in which candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders won a protectionist line were successful. In addition, he is skeptical of stronger financial market regulation , which has brought him criticism from the left wing of the Democrats. On environmental issues, Kaine supports the Democrats' position to take action against climate change and spoke out against building the Keystone XL pipeline , but - unlike Clinton - is open to offshore oil drilling. In November 2017, Kaine campaigned for the so-called super delegates to be abolished in the Democratic presidential election; they are dignitaries who take part in the nomination without being elected and without candidate commitment. Bernie Sanders had already called for their abolition in his 2016 election campaign when Kaines running mate Clinton was nominated with their help.

His socio-political progressivism feeds on the tradition of the civil rights movement and on Catholic social teaching . Especially after the 2007 Virginia Tech rampage , which in retrospect he called the "worst day of my life" and which he accompanied as governor, Kaine advocates regulating arms sales through mandatory reviews of buyers ("background checks") a. Kaine, who, as a Catholic, speaks out against abortion personally , in his political work strictly advocates the right of self-determination of pregnant women ( Pro-Choice ), as it is a personal decision. However, he opposes the repeal of the Hyde Amendment , which, with a few exceptions, prohibits the federal government from providing financial support for abortions. He stood against the position of the presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election campaign. He also bases his rejection of the death penalty on his faith , which had become a central issue against him in his 2005 governor election campaign, but as governor he allowed eleven executions - in compliance with state law.

Kaine takes a relatively tough line in foreign and security policy. For example, he repeatedly called for military means to be used against the terrorist organization Islamic State , and criticized the Obama administration for its restraint in the civil war in Syria and for the lack of involvement of Congress in military decisions.

Web links

Commons : Tim Kaine  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Tim Kaine  - Sources and full texts (English)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Niall O'Dowd: Five Irish Americans who could be Hillary Clinton's running mate. In: IrishCentral , April 8, 2016 (English).
  2. ↑ Christina Nuckols: Who is Timothy M. Kaine? In: The Virginian-Pilot , October 16, 2005 (English).
  3. ↑ Timothy Dwyer: For Kaine, a Faith in Service. In: The Washington Post , November 2, 2005.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Sheryl Gay Stolberg: Tim Kaine: A Self-Effacing Senator in a Sharp-Elbows Era. In: The New York Times , July 22, 2016 (English).
  5. ^ A b c d Amy Chozick: Hillary Clinton Selects Tim Kaine, a Popular Senator From a Swing State, as Running Mate. In: The New York Times , July 22, 2016 (English).
  6. ↑ Bruce Parker: From the RTD archives: Wedding announcement of Tim Kaine and Anne Holton. In: Richmond Times-Dispatch , November 25, 1984, online July 21, 2016.
  7. ↑ Moriah Balingit, Emma Brown: Meet Tim Kaine's wife, a longtime child welfare advocate and Virginia's secretary of education. In: The Washington Post , July 22, 2016.
  8. ↑ Moriah Balingit: Anne Holton wife, of Clinton's running mate, resigns as Va's education secretary.. In: The Washington Post , July 26, 2016.
  9. ↑ Darren Samuelsohn: Kaine email trove shows media-savvy micromanager. In: Politico , July 22, 2016 (English).
  10. ^ Andrew Prokop: The Tim Kaine gift controversy, explained. In: Vox.com , July 23, 2016 (English).
  11. ↑ Andrew Tanenbaum : Kaine Accepted Many Gifts in Virginia. In: Electoral-Vote.com , July 24, 2016 (English).
  12. ↑ a b c d e f Michael A. Memoli: How Tim Kaine went from 'wild card' vice presidential pick to shortlist favorite for Hillary Clinton. In: The Los Angeles Times , July 1, 2016 (English).
  13. ↑ Chris Cillizza: Tim Kaine announces for Senate in Virginia. In: The Washington Post , April 5, 2011, accessed July 24, 2016.
  14. ↑ Election Results. In: CNN , December 10, 2012, accessed July 24, 2016.
  15. ^ Alan Suderman: Kaine says he's not going to run for president in 2020. In: AP News , November 18, 2016 (English).
  16. ^ Andrew Kaczynski: Virginia Senate race: Carly Fiorina rules out run, Jim Gilmore 'considering' candidacy. In: CNN.com , September 8, 2017 (English).
  17. ↑ Alex Thompson: 'America's Dad' campaigns for redemption. In: Politico , November 3, 2018.
  18. ^ Courtney Pomeroy: Virginia Senator Tim Kaine wins re-election, beating Republican Corey Stewart. In: WJLA, November 7, 2018, accessed November 7, 2018.
  19. ^ Travis Fain: Tim Kaine: Still Clinton's general wisdom VP front runner. In: Daily Press , June 4, 2015 (English).
  20. ↑ Sheryl Gay Stolberg: Tim Kaine: A Self-Effacing Senator in a Sharp-Elbows Era. In: The New York Times , July 22, 2016 (English); Tim Kaine: Maybe too nice for Trump. In: Zeit Online , July 24, 2016; Burgess Everett: Is Tim Kaine mean enough for Trump? In: Politico , August 3, 2016 (English).
  21. ↑ Boris Heersink, Brenton Peterson: Without Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton might have lost Virginia as well. In: The Washington Post , November 17, 2016.
  22. ↑ Niels Lesniewski: Tim Kaine Cites Importance of Senate Democrats as check on Trump. In: Roll Call , November 15, 2016 (English).
  23. ↑ Amy Chozick: Tim Kaine Seems Likely for Hillary Clinton's No. 2, but Liberals Balk. In: The New York Times , July 21, 2016 (English).
  24. ↑ Gabriel Debenedetti: Kaine calls for eliminating superdelegates. In: Politico , November 15, 2017 (English).
  25. ↑ Stephen Braun, Eileen Sullivan: Kaine liberal appeal muted by energy ties, abortion concerns. In: The Washington Post , July 23, 2016.
  26. ↑ Betsy Woodruff: The Tragedy That Shaped Tim Kaine. In: The Daily Beast , July 13, 2016 (English).
  27. ↑ Emily Crockett: Tim Kaine's evolving views on abortion, explained. In: Vox.com , July 23, 2016 (English).
  28. ↑ Ruby Mellen: Kaine breaks with Clinton on abortion provision. In: CNN , August 1, 2016 (English).
  29. ↑ Jonathan Weisman: An Obama Ally Parts With Him on War Powers. In: The New York Times , October 5, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Kaine, Tim
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kaine, Timothy Michael (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Paul , Minnesota