HILLARY CLINTON SELECTS TIM KAINE AS VICE PRESIDENTIAL RUNNING MATE

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By Liz Alper

July 22, 2016 (Washington D.C.) - In a Twitter post on Friday, Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton announced that she has selected Viriginia senator Tim Kaine to be her vice presidential running mate.

A Clinton campaign official says that Clinton called Kaine tonight to tell him that he was her choice.  She also informed president Barack Obama.

Kaine won Clinton's favor on a list that consisted of two dozen contenders that included Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Colorado governor John Hickenlooper and Labor Secretary Tom Perez..  Clinton rallied with Kaine last Thursday in Virginia and, according to the same official, enjoyed the rally with him and invited him back to her Washington D.C. home.  The next day, he was invited back.

Clinton cited Kaine's "readiness to do the job" as what swayed her to choose him.

"To know Tim is to love him," she wrote in a fundraising email. "When I was talking to people about this decision, I couldn't find anyone -- Democrat or Republican -- who had a bad thing to say about him."

Kaine served as governor of Virginia and was elected a senator in 2012.  He was one of the first to support Clinton early in the 2016 campaign, being involved with the pro-Clinton group Ready for Hillary. 

Kaine speaks Spanish and has a strong record of supporting civil rights and women’s reproductive freedoms.  His support for big financial institutions and free trade agreements opposed by labor, however, could be problematic in wooing Bernie Sanders supporters.

His presence in the Clinton campaign could help with a demographic that has been pulling away from Democrats:  white men.  He is also likely to help shore up support among women and minorities.

 

 


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