In battleground Virginia, Kaine may give Democrats an edge
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. speaks during a rally at McGonigle Hall at Temple University in Philadelphia , Friday, July 29, 2016. In Virginia, Clinton leads Trump in polls of likely voters, more narrowly in those that include Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. But Kaine provides the Democrat a familiar name and, to many, a familiar face with appeal in swing-voting and GOP-leaning regions.
RICHMOND, Virginia >> Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine’s name on the Democratic ticket can realistically nudge this pivotal state closer into Hillary Clinton’s column — no small feat in a contest of two presidential nominees that engender strong feelings by themselves.
Kaine’s rise through Richmond city politics and tenure in state government gives the party disproportionate pull, specifically in the politically dynamic capital city metro area.
And while Clinton’s aides try to downplay his potential impact on the must-win state, strategists in both parties say Kaine can put Virginia out of Republican Donald Trump’s reach in the race for 270 Electoral College votes.
“Tim Kaine is an example of putting someone on the ticket that will impact their home state,” Virginia Republican strategist Chris Jankowski said. “Putting him on the ticket turns Virginia from a true, toss-up state to one that leans Democratic.”
The vice presidential nomination hasn’t made the difference in the election outcome in decades. But Virginia has become one of the most competitive states over the past four elections after 30 years as reliably Republican.
In Virginia, Clinton leads Trump in polls of likely voters, more narrowly than in polls that also ask about Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. But Kaine provides the Democrats a familiar name and, to many, a familiar face with appeal in swing-voting and GOP-leaning regions.
Kaine’s support for some abortion restrictions gave him the reputation as a moderate, which helped him outperform President Barack Obama in their respective races in swing-voting suburbs of northern Virginia in 2012. At the same time, leaders in both parties say Kaine’s pursuit of gun restrictions after the April 2007 killings at Virginia Tech University helps him with the state’s growing number of suburban parents.
Kaine signed an executive order requiring those involuntarily committed to mental health institutions be reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, action President George W. Bush required of all states later that year.
But Kaine’s biggest potential benefit to the ticket is in central Virginia, in the counties surrounding his longtime home in Richmond.
Kaine has been a fixture in a metro area that accounts for 10 percent of Virginia’s voting population, including heavily Democratic Richmond. He’s lived in the same north Richmond neighborhood for more than 20 years, attends the same downtown church and is a regular for breakfast at City Diner just west of downtown.
“He’s a regular guy. He lives in a regular neighborhood and relates to regular people,” Sandra Hansboro, a Democrat from nearby Midlothian, said.
His regular guy image quickly picked up steam after his speech at last week’s Democratic National Convention, when Twitter jokes depicting Kaine as an average American dad quickly went viral.
But it’s this doughnut around Richmond —- politically and culturally diverse Henrico County to the north, east and west, and whiter, GOP-leaning Chesterfield, to the south and west — where Kaine’s potential impact on the presidential ticket can really be seen.
These renovated urban, neatly trimmed suburban and developing rural tracts of the Old South are now a cross section of emerging Virginia where Kaine’s non-ideological approach has shadowed the state’s Democratic migration.
“It’s a microcosm of the state. And it’s gone from a light shade of red, to a light shade of blue.” McEachin said, characterizing the Richmond suburbs in color-coded partisan terms.
George W. Bush carried Virginia twice by less than 10 percentage points, while Obama has also carried it twice, though by smaller margins.
The proof of Kaine’s help to Clinton will be in how he can narrow the Republican advantage in Chesterfield County, similar in population size to Henrico, but less urban and with a more Republican hue.
Golf courses, higher-end suburbs and retail developments now mark Chesterfield County, a landscape once known for the coal and tobacco it shipped out of the confluence of the James and Appomattox rivers.
Although Kaine has never carried the county, he has dramatically outperformed most Democrats. In 2012, he received 3,500 more votes there than Obama did. And he trimmed the GOP edge to a few percentage points in 2005 and 2012 in a county George W. Bush won twice by nearly two-to-one.
“Chesterfield is the county to watch,” former longtime Republican state Sen. John Watkins. “If Kaine can help shave Trump’s margin to less than 10 percentage points, Clinton will win Virginia.”
Trump has said his appeal to white, working-class voters can put long-held Democratic states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania into contention this fall. But he also needs to win back territory gained by Democrats in recent elections, such as Virginia and North Carolina.
“There’s no question Virginia will be motivated in a way they otherwise wouldn’t be,” Virginia Republican Party Chairman John Whitbeck said. “Tim Kaine will motivate Virginia Democrats more than Hillary Clinton would.”
Even a small uptick in voter turnout, which Clinton’s campaign aides say Kaine can provide, could make the difference in a close election, according to strategists on either side of the partisan divide.
If Kaine can spur turnout in metropolitan Richmond, “we could add a point or two,” Clinton’s Virginia director Brian Zuzenak said.
Kaine accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination Tuesday at the party’s national convention in Philadelphia. He is scheduled to headline a homecoming rally in Richmond Monday.
“He’s a benefit to us on the ticket,” Zuzenak said. “In a battleground state like Virginia, it’s all about the margins.”
14 responses to “In battleground Virginia, Kaine may give Democrats an edge”
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Kaine is one weird dude. He sure acts like a puppet and we know whose pulling his strings. Press 1 for English.
That’s the best Hillary could do. Pocahontas said thanks but no thanks. Julian was under investigation, Kaine is the only Democrat not under investigation.
Really, Pence, has said some of the ridiculous things I have ever heard, here is a very small sample:
“Smoking doesn’t kill.”
In 2015, BuzzFeed dug up a quote from Pence’s 2000 Congressional campaign site, in which he blamed the “hysteria” about lung cancer on “the political class and the media.” Meanwhile, there is absolutely no dispute in the scientific community about the effects of smoking on health and the lungs. In fact, study after study confirms that smoking is the single biggest cause of cancer around the world. But Pence explained:
Time for a quick reality check. Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn’t kill. In fact, two out of every three smokers does not die from a smoking related illness and nine out of 10 smokers do not contract lung cancer.
“I don’t know that [climate change] is a resolved issue in science today.”
In 2014—just two years ago—Pence made this claim, arguing that there is no evidence that climate change is manmade. 97 percent of climate scientists disagree with him. And about 92 percent of scientists overall disagree as well.
“In the state of Indiana, marriage is recognized as between a man and a woman, and I think that’s how it should remain.”
Despite the huge swell of voters who avidly disagree with this assessment, and the nation’s profound cultural shift over the past decade towards the legalization of gay marriage, Pence is still not on board. In 2014, he used this line while talking to MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. In fact, his attitude toward LGBTQ rights overall has been hostile: In 2015 he signed a law that allowed business owners to discriminate against gay couples and Pence also signed an open letter claiming that the left’s labeling of anti-gay rights organizations as “hate groups” is “intolerance pure and simple.”
“Congress should oppose any effort to recognize homosexual’s as a ‘discreet and insular minority’ entitled to the protection of anti-discrimination laws similar to those extended to women and ethnic minorities.”
Another find from his 2000 campaign website, Pence not only urged lawmakers not to consider members of the LGBTQ community as minorities deserving of a protected status, but he also asked that funds be redirected “toward those institutions which provide assistance to those seeking to change their sexual behavior.” In other words, don’t help persecuted gays and send them to potentially devastating “therapies” as punishment for their behavior.
This cost his state tens of millions dollars, and was almost immediately pulled, as it was deemed illegal.
Stay on point. Who is Pence?
Yeah, those who have spent a lifetime in real service to people here and abroad,, who have humble beginnings (they still live in the house they got married in, over 25 years ago) the mutual respect of folks on both sides of the aisle (his father in law is former R governor), a staunch Catholic with impeccable academic pedigree (Harvard Law)— yeah, those guys are really weird—-in an incredibly competent, compassionate and intelligent way.
Explain to me why such a fine man would want to be in the same room as Crooked Hillary?
In “Partners in Crime,” two-time No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Jerome Corsi presents the detailed research and expert testimony proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Clinton Foundation is “a vast, criminal conspiracy,” also described in these pages as “a slush fund for grifters.”
Corsi exposes how the Clintons amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in personal net worth, while building a $2 billion empire in the Clinton Foundation. The victims are countless thousands of honest people who contributed their hard-earned money to what they thought were philanthropic causes. The sordid tale involves suspicion of Enron-like fraudulent accounting practices by none less than PricewaterhouseCoopers, a “Big Four” firm, as well as the several “shell corporations” and “pass-through” bank accounts Bill Clinton has established in secret to hide what amount to kickbacks from Clinton Foundation donors and sponsors.
In “Partners in Crime,” Corsi provides readers the names and addresses of state attorney generals throughout the country, explaining that any one state in the Union can get a temporary restraining order from a state judge to place the Clinton Foundation in receivership and launch law enforcement examinations of Clinton Family philanthropic fraud accomplished on a global scale.
It is not enough, Corsi concludes, to appeal to Hillary Clinton to withdraw from the 2016 presidential race in disgrace. A national campaign to “Shut Down the Clinton Foundation” must be launched, Corsi insists, to prevent Barack Obama and other heads of state worldwide from following the Clinton Family crime formula to create their own “charitable foundations” to enrich themselves upon leaving office.
Tim Kaine is on his way to becoming the 45th POTUS providing Crooked Hillary wins. She one blood clot away.
He’d be better than Crooked Hillary. Anybody would be better than her. She’s not very lady like. She can get down in the gutter with the best of them. If that’s the high road, the low road must be in hell.
Get real. The only reason she picked him was to get the VA battleground state vote!!! It’s all politics and calculated!!! Pick Warren?? Get real again–she has that state’s votes.
What do the top ten cities (over 250,000 pop.) with the highest poverty rate
all have in common?
Detroit, MI – (1st on poverty rate list) hasn’t elected a Republican mayor
since 1961
Buffalo, NY – (2nd) hasn’t elected one since 1954
Cincinnati, OH – (3rd) not since 1984
Cleveland, OH – (4th) not since 1989
Miami, FL – (5th) has never had a Republican mayor
St. Louis, MO – (6th) not since 1949
El Paso, TX – (7th) has never had a Republican mayor
Milwaukee, WI – (8th) not since 1908
Philadelphia, PA – (9th) not since 1952
Newark, NJ – (10th) not since 1907
A vote for Crooked Hillary is a vote for four more years of poverty.
Super Delegates.
delete your account
Les, should be a circus act, who is part parrot. He parrots things without hesitation and or understanding……come all, look at the parrot man!