PHILADELPHIA — One month after Tim Kaine said his critics were right to call him “boring,” the Virginia senator pitched himself to Americans as a natural fit for the bottom of the Democratic presidential ticket — and emphasized how honored he is to potentially serve in the shadow of the first female president.
In his solo debut as the Democratic vice presidential candidate, Kaine on Wednesday sought to convince the party’s progressive wing that he isn’t the lukewarm centrist they’ve imagined him to be. But after a turbulent two days of protests and a shakeup in the Democratic National Committee’s top leadership post, the 58-year-old senator wasn’t prepared to mince words either when he spoke about the importance of unity.
“Hillary Clinton and I are compañeros del alma,” Kaine said, showing off his fluent Spanish and attracting chants of “Si se puede!” from hundreds of delegates in the arena. “We share this belief: Do all the good you can. Serve one another. That’s what I’m about. That’s what you’re about. That’s what Bernie Sanders is about. That’s what Joe Biden is about. That’s what Barack and Michelle Obama are about. And that’s what Hillary Clinton is about.”
Having been chosen as Clinton’s running mate less than a week ago, the speech was Kaine’s first opportunity to leave a lasting impression on the millions voters to whom he is largely unknown and his record is unfamiliar.
“I never expected to be here,” he humbly told the Democratic delegation. “But let me tell you how it happened.”
Kaine credited a missionary trip he took decades ago with inspiring much of his decision to pursue a life in public service. During that trip to Honduras, “I got a first-hand look at a system — a dictatorship — where a few people at the top had all the power and everyone else got left out. It convinced me that we’ve got to advance opportunity for everyone,” he explained.
The 17 years he later spent as a civil rights attorney eventually led him to run for a minor position in Virginia politics. “My city of Richmond was divided and discouraged … I couldn’t stand it. So I ran for city council.”
“I won that first race, more than 20 years ago, by 94 votes. And I’ve said ever since — if I’m good at anything, it’s because I started at the local level, listening to people, learning about their lives and trying to get results,” he said. “Later, I became mayor of Richmond, lieutenant governor, and then the 70th governor of Virginia.”
Few see Kaine, the self-effacing former mayor and governor, as the attack dog type who will assail Donald Trump each day between now and November. Wednesday night, however, Kaine demonstrated that he can be bold in his criticism of Trump despite his bland demeanor.
“You know who I don’t trust? Donald Trump. The guy promises a lot. But you might have noticed, he has a habit of saying the same two words right after he makes his biggest promises. You guys know the words I mean? ‘Believe me,'” he quipped.
He continued to mock the Republican presidential nominee: “It’s gonna be great — believe me! We’re gonna build a wall and make Mexico pay for it — believe me! We’re gonna destroy ISIS so fast — believe me! There’s nothing suspicious in my tax returns — believe me! By the way, does anyone here believe that Donald Trump’s been paying his fair share of taxes? Do you believe he ought to release those tax returns like every other presidential candidate in modern history? Of course he should. Donald, what are you hiding?”
The Virginia senator delivered his speech without any major disruptions, somewhat quelling the concerns of Clinton allies who worried Kaine’s selection for the vice presidential slot would further repeal voters who backed Sanders in the primary and remain reluctant to shift their support to the former first lady. Party officials were reportedly so convinced that progressive delegates would vocalize their opposition to Kaine that they accelerated floor proceedings Wednesday afternoon and skipped a formal nominating speech.
While Kaine comes from a key battleground state and boasts an impressive resume that includes years of public service and a stint at Harvard Law, his policy prescriptions and record in the Senate have far-left Democrats wondering if he can be trusted to help Clinton craft a progressive agenda. Like Clinton, who abandoned her support of the Trans Pacific Partnership last fall to make herself more competitive against Sanders, Kaine was praising the trade agreement as recently as last week but now opposes it.
“I think this says it loud and clear: at the beginning of his talk with Hillary Clinton he was for TPP, then after it … suddenly he wasn’t TPP. That, among other issues, shows us he isn’t true to his word and doesn’t have strong convictions,” Florida delegate John Carlos Espenosa told the Washington Examiner shortly before Kaine took the stage.
Kaine’s support for adjustments to the Dodd-Frank bill and his religious opposition to the capital punishment and abortion have given progressives even further pause as they vacillate between defecting for a third-party candidate or swallowing their pride to fully support the Democratic ticket.
Michigan delegate Nel Soda said Clinton “could have made a much better choice.”
“The vice presidency was an opportunity to unify the party, and instead she picked a centrist-right candidate who is just not appealing to Sanders voters at all,” Soda said. “She should have picked a progressive, or at leasy someone who supports Sanders’ values. Tim Kaine does not support his values.”
Nevertheless, Kaine stood proudly in support of the woman with who invited him to join her on the Democratic ticket while simultaneously seeking to appeal to Democratic voters across America who hold feelings similar to Soda’s.
“We should all ‘Feel the Bern’ and we should all not want to get burned by the other guy,” he said in what proved to be one of the heaviest applause lines of his speech.
Ariel Cohen contributed to this report.
