Richmond revels in Kaine homecoming
RICHMOND, Va. - This is a city known for its history: It hosted Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death speech,” served as the capital of the Confederacy and has a rich tobacco tradition in south Richmond, where millions of Marlboro cigarettes still roll off the line each day.
And now it’s the hometown of Tim Kaine - who, as a vice president, would be the biggest thing in Richmond since?
“The Civil War,” chuckled Randy Welch of Bon Air, Va., who has worked for Kaine’s campaigns in the past.
“On a national scale I don’t think there’s anybody [from Richmond] in modern history that would rise to that level,” said Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones when asked of Kaine’s status, ticking off a still brighter future: “Vice president of the United States, a heartbeat away from the presidency, able to run for the presidency in the future because he’s young enough.”
It’s heady stuff for the 58-year-old Kaine, who packed them in here at Huguenot High School, in the city’s southern section. Returning to a thick crowd of people from all over Central Virginia almost seemed to be too much for Kaine to take in at times as he appeared solo for the first time since joining Hillary Clinton’s ticket 10 days ago.
“This will be the hardest speech that I will give during the entire campaign,” Kaine said, recounting a tough task at the Democratic National Convention, sandwiched between the speaking slots of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. “But this is harder.”
The campaign stop had the crisp feel of a professionally organized event combined with a citywide block party. Neighborhood streets were gridlocked with people scrambling for parking, with some walking a mile or more through the languid air to see their junior senator’s first solo campaign appearance.
And there was Clinton-Kaine “Stronger Together” branding everywhere, even if it was clearly a celebration of the latter name on the ticket. The first organic cheer at the event? Exuberant chants of “Yes we Kaine.”
“It’s not big. It’s enormous,” said Caroline Smart of Henrico County, a one-time suburban GOP stronghold that’s becomes a battleground in recent elections. “Although he’s from Kansas, he’s so ingrained in this community. “
Indeed, even though he was born and raised in the Midwest, the senator’s identity these days is all Virginia, but even more specifically Richmond. Kaine rose here from a housing lawyer to mayor to governor before becoming a senator, the rare politician whose hometown is also the seat of his state’s government.
Kaine mixed it up here by focusing his remarks on Virginia, only later pivoting toward his pro-Clinton, anti-Trump speech during an address that lasted 47 minutes. He wore a jacket and pants that didn’t quite match and largely stayed away from the Spanish he’s brandished so effectively. For good measure, he dropped a couple more “y’alls” than usual, while his wife, Anne Holton, didn’t need to do much explaining before Kaine took the stage.
“I am not going to give anybody here any biographical introduction,” Holton said of Kaine’s three decades of roots in the city. “You don’t need me to do it.”
He still texts with people he’s known for years, friends say, and is pretty much the same “aw-shucks” guy that dug into the community here in the 1980s. He sent his kids to Richmond public schools and still attends St. Elizabeth’s Roman Catholic Church here. He has a regular coffee club at a downtown diner every Tuesday, though its days might be numbered amidst a national campaign.
“It’s kind of surreal for me, because it’s almost like your next door neighbor got tapped to be the vice president,” said Del. Jennifer McClellan, who’s known Kaine for 20 years and counts him as a constituent.
That’s not to say things have stayed stagnant in Richmond - or “RVA” in the local parlance. Kaine said on Monday that his kids brag that it’s a “hipster town” now.
“Nothing in public life ... is as meaningful as hearing your kids brag about the town you live in,” Kaine said, repeatedly gushing about his home town. “The beautiful diversity of our commonwealth is so exciting.”
But Kaine did get more somber when speaking of the state’s history of discriminating both on the basis of ethnicity and gender. He reasoned that ugly past is what’s prevented modern Virginia from producing national politicians in the vein of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson - perhaps until now.
"It’s been 170 years since Virginia has had a president or vice president,” Kaine said. “A complete goose egg since 1845. Why did that happen? … Because we were so bound and determined to push people away because of the color of their skin. Even because of their gender.”
op note - idk if this was an error on his part or the reporter's part cause there's this guy named idk Woodrow Wilson and he was the President... although he was only born in Virginia so idk
Clinton’s choice of Kaine is a pragmatic one. He’s steady, not inflammatory and is a good retail politician. He speaks Spanish and has built a career on minority outreach. But perhaps most importantly, he’s from Virginia, now a red-hot presidential battleground.
On Monday evening Kaine gave a long history lesson of how Virginia was ignored for 150 years in presidential elections, until as governor he started egging then-Sen. Barack Obama to try and compete here.
“We’re going to do it. But Tim, if we see a bad poll, we’re going to pull out,” Obama said in 2008, in Kaine’s telling.
“You’re going to be president not in spite of Virginia, but because of Virginia,” Kaine said he responded.
To win Virginia this time around, as Obama did twice, the battle centers on the millions of people now living in the Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia, a diverse area whose exploding population has tilted the state toward Democrats in presidential election years. Yet Kaine is starting his solo campaign here in this heavily Democratic, majority black city, while his GOP counterpart Mike Pence prepares to campaign in the more competitive Hampton Roads area later this week.
In Virginia, it’s widely believed that whomever wins two of the state’s three most populous areas can take the state: Greater Richmond, Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.
“I hope he’ll spend a lot of time here,” said Corinne Price of Hanover County, just north of the city.
But Kaine will be wielded as a politician with national appeal, traveling this week to Florida and North Carolina and likely in diverse Western states like Colorado and Nevada. Still, local leaders expect that when he has a day or two to cool his heels from the rigors of battling Pence and Trump, this is where you’ll find him.
“He goes to church here and he’s kind of a person who loves to be at home. I would expect whenever he’s got a minute to be in Richmond, he’ll be here,” Jones said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/tim-kaine-richmond-virginia-226547#ixzz4GE2wCnJz
And now it’s the hometown of Tim Kaine - who, as a vice president, would be the biggest thing in Richmond since?
“The Civil War,” chuckled Randy Welch of Bon Air, Va., who has worked for Kaine’s campaigns in the past.
“On a national scale I don’t think there’s anybody [from Richmond] in modern history that would rise to that level,” said Richmond Mayor Dwight Jones when asked of Kaine’s status, ticking off a still brighter future: “Vice president of the United States, a heartbeat away from the presidency, able to run for the presidency in the future because he’s young enough.”
It’s heady stuff for the 58-year-old Kaine, who packed them in here at Huguenot High School, in the city’s southern section. Returning to a thick crowd of people from all over Central Virginia almost seemed to be too much for Kaine to take in at times as he appeared solo for the first time since joining Hillary Clinton’s ticket 10 days ago.
“This will be the hardest speech that I will give during the entire campaign,” Kaine said, recounting a tough task at the Democratic National Convention, sandwiched between the speaking slots of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. “But this is harder.”
The campaign stop had the crisp feel of a professionally organized event combined with a citywide block party. Neighborhood streets were gridlocked with people scrambling for parking, with some walking a mile or more through the languid air to see their junior senator’s first solo campaign appearance.
And there was Clinton-Kaine “Stronger Together” branding everywhere, even if it was clearly a celebration of the latter name on the ticket. The first organic cheer at the event? Exuberant chants of “Yes we Kaine.”
“It’s not big. It’s enormous,” said Caroline Smart of Henrico County, a one-time suburban GOP stronghold that’s becomes a battleground in recent elections. “Although he’s from Kansas, he’s so ingrained in this community. “
Indeed, even though he was born and raised in the Midwest, the senator’s identity these days is all Virginia, but even more specifically Richmond. Kaine rose here from a housing lawyer to mayor to governor before becoming a senator, the rare politician whose hometown is also the seat of his state’s government.
Kaine mixed it up here by focusing his remarks on Virginia, only later pivoting toward his pro-Clinton, anti-Trump speech during an address that lasted 47 minutes. He wore a jacket and pants that didn’t quite match and largely stayed away from the Spanish he’s brandished so effectively. For good measure, he dropped a couple more “y’alls” than usual, while his wife, Anne Holton, didn’t need to do much explaining before Kaine took the stage.
“I am not going to give anybody here any biographical introduction,” Holton said of Kaine’s three decades of roots in the city. “You don’t need me to do it.”
He still texts with people he’s known for years, friends say, and is pretty much the same “aw-shucks” guy that dug into the community here in the 1980s. He sent his kids to Richmond public schools and still attends St. Elizabeth’s Roman Catholic Church here. He has a regular coffee club at a downtown diner every Tuesday, though its days might be numbered amidst a national campaign.
“It’s kind of surreal for me, because it’s almost like your next door neighbor got tapped to be the vice president,” said Del. Jennifer McClellan, who’s known Kaine for 20 years and counts him as a constituent.
That’s not to say things have stayed stagnant in Richmond - or “RVA” in the local parlance. Kaine said on Monday that his kids brag that it’s a “hipster town” now.
“Nothing in public life ... is as meaningful as hearing your kids brag about the town you live in,” Kaine said, repeatedly gushing about his home town. “The beautiful diversity of our commonwealth is so exciting.”
But Kaine did get more somber when speaking of the state’s history of discriminating both on the basis of ethnicity and gender. He reasoned that ugly past is what’s prevented modern Virginia from producing national politicians in the vein of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson - perhaps until now.
"It’s been 170 years since Virginia has had a president or vice president,” Kaine said. “A complete goose egg since 1845. Why did that happen? … Because we were so bound and determined to push people away because of the color of their skin. Even because of their gender.”
op note - idk if this was an error on his part or the reporter's part cause there's this guy named idk Woodrow Wilson and he was the President... although he was only born in Virginia so idk
Clinton’s choice of Kaine is a pragmatic one. He’s steady, not inflammatory and is a good retail politician. He speaks Spanish and has built a career on minority outreach. But perhaps most importantly, he’s from Virginia, now a red-hot presidential battleground.
On Monday evening Kaine gave a long history lesson of how Virginia was ignored for 150 years in presidential elections, until as governor he started egging then-Sen. Barack Obama to try and compete here.
“We’re going to do it. But Tim, if we see a bad poll, we’re going to pull out,” Obama said in 2008, in Kaine’s telling.
“You’re going to be president not in spite of Virginia, but because of Virginia,” Kaine said he responded.
To win Virginia this time around, as Obama did twice, the battle centers on the millions of people now living in the Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia, a diverse area whose exploding population has tilted the state toward Democrats in presidential election years. Yet Kaine is starting his solo campaign here in this heavily Democratic, majority black city, while his GOP counterpart Mike Pence prepares to campaign in the more competitive Hampton Roads area later this week.
In Virginia, it’s widely believed that whomever wins two of the state’s three most populous areas can take the state: Greater Richmond, Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia.
“I hope he’ll spend a lot of time here,” said Corinne Price of Hanover County, just north of the city.
But Kaine will be wielded as a politician with national appeal, traveling this week to Florida and North Carolina and likely in diverse Western states like Colorado and Nevada. Still, local leaders expect that when he has a day or two to cool his heels from the rigors of battling Pence and Trump, this is where you’ll find him.
“He goes to church here and he’s kind of a person who loves to be at home. I would expect whenever he’s got a minute to be in Richmond, he’ll be here,” Jones said.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/tim-kaine-richmond-virginia-226547#ixzz4GE2wCnJz
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