The tick­et is com­plete:

Hillary Clin­ton named Sen­a­tor Tim Kaine of Vir­ginia to be her run­ning mate Fri­day, select­ing a bat­tle­ground state politi­cian with work­ing-class roots and a flu­en­cy in Span­ish, traits that she believes can bol­ster her chances to defeat Don­ald J. Trump in November.

Mrs. Clinton’s choice, which she announced via text mes­sage to sup­port­ers, came after her advis­ers spent months por­ing over poten­tial vice-pres­i­den­tial can­di­dates who could lift the Demo­c­ra­t­ic tick­et in an unpre­dictable race against Mr. Trump.

“I’m thrilled to announce my run­ning mate, Tim Kaine, a man who’s devot­ed his life to fight­ing for oth­ers,” Clin­ton tweet­ed.

Kaine is a for­mer gov­er­nor who was elect­ed to the Unit­ed States Sen­ate in 2012, suc­ceed­ing Jim Webb, who left the Sen­ate after serv­ing only one term. (Webb was briefly a can­di­date for the 2016 Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion last year.) Pri­or to his Sen­ate cam­paign, he also chaired the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Committee.

Ide­o­log­i­cal­ly speak­ing, Kaine isn’t the most pro­gres­sive choice Clin­ton could have made, but he’s sol­id, at least. As of last year, Pri­ma­ry Col­ors had rat­ed him a “Good Demo­c­rat” (their high­est rank­ing), with an expect­ed score of 89.6 and an actu­al score of 87.6. He has an over­all life­time score of 90.84% from Pro­gres­sivePunch and a cru­cial life­time score of 70.37%.

Kaine’s stance on trade in par­tic­u­lar is not like­ly to go over well with Bernie Sanders’ most com­mit­ted sup­port­ers, but as Clin­ton is opposed to the Trans-Pacif­ic Part­ner­ship, that will now have to become his posi­tion as well.

If he and Clin­ton win, Kaine will have to resign his U.S. Sen­ate seat. Vir­ginia, how­ev­er, has a Demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nor — Ter­ry McAu­li­ffe — so his imme­di­ate replace­ment would be a Democrat.

Kaine is expect­ed to join Clin­ton on the cam­paign trail tomorrow.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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One reply on “It’s official: Hillary Clinton has chosen Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate”

  1. Bernie Sanders sup­port­ers are extreme­ly unhap­py, they feel that their num­bers war­rant a pro­gres­sive choice. They feel that this tick­et does not reflect their views.

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