Hillary Clinton taps Tim Kaine as running mate

Presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has tapped U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., as her running mate in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Clinton announced the selection of Kaine, a former Virginia governor, lieutenant governor and Richmond mayor, late Friday night.

Kaine, 58, had been a finalist in the veepstakes for Barack Obama in 2008 as he was serving his term as Virginia governor. He served as chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2009-2011 before winning a seat in the United States Senate in 2012.

Kaine was an early endorser of Clinton in the 2016 presidential cycle, and was speculated as a top running mate choice for Clinton for several months.

The announcement comes on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, which opens on Monday in Philadelphia, as Clinton tries to steal some of the thunder of the recently concluded Republican National Convention that ended with the nomination of businessman Donald Trump.

Trump selected Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as his running mate as a reachout to social conservatives.

Kaine, like Clinton, is a moderate Democrat, and Kaine represents a state in Virginia that is crucial to the Electoral College calculus that elected Obama in 2008 and 2012.

Virginia went to Obama in each of the last two election cycles after voting Republican in every election dating to 1968.

Kaine was elected lieutenant governor in 2001 on a ticket headed by Mark Warner, another middle-of-the-road Democrat who was elected governor and now also represents Virginia in the United States Senate.

After Warner served his constitutionally mandated single term in office, Kaine ran for governor in 2005, defeating former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore in that election cycle.

He defeated another former governor and United States senator, George Allen, in a race for the U.S. Senate seat left open in 2012 by the retirement of Jim Webb, who waged a brief campaign for the Democratic Party presidential nomination in the 2012 cycle.

Kaine is married to Anne Holton, the daughter of former Republican Virginia Gov. Linwood Holton. Anne Holton serves as the Secretary of Education in the Cabinet of Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a long-time confidante of Bill and Hillary Clinton.