Home Tim Kaine, unlike that Republican guy, doesn’t think rural Virginia is ‘podunk’
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Tim Kaine, unlike that Republican guy, doesn’t think rural Virginia is ‘podunk’

Chris Graham
tim kaine waynesboro
Photo: Chris Graham/AFP

The reason, supposedly, that Republicans do so well in rural areas is, Republicans are the ones you can see yourself having a beer with.

Which, seriously. A beer with Donald Trump? JD Vance?

That botoxed-up pretty boy Matt Gaetz would be a hoot in these parts, wouldn’t he?

Tim Kaine, U.S. senator from Virginia, ran for vice president in 2016, alongside Hillary Clinton, the way the conventional wisdom has things, he’s about as wonkish as you can get.

The image that Fox News wants you to have of guys like Tim Kaine is, wine and cheese.

Tim Kaine, in dark jeans and a black T-shirt, was in Waynesboro on Saturday, having a beer at the Basic City Beer Co., over there on the side of town that even city leaders don’t give the credit it deserves and the attention it needs.

The owner, he said, asked him not to give a speech, so he didn’t give a speech, though when a local musician, Kevin Chisnell, said something to the senator about playing a song with him at a meet-and-greet a few years ago, Kaine used that as an excuse to instruct one of his campaign aides to run out to the SUV to retrieve his harmonica, because he had a couple of songs that he wanted to play.

Take your botoxed suit-and-tie on a Saturday right-wing blogosphere PR nonsense about Democrats and shove it, basically.

“The person who will vote for Tim Kaine in a red district is my most loyal voter. It is easy to vote for Tim Kaine in the City of Richmond, where it’s 80 percent Democratic. But when everybody in your neighborhood has the other guy’s bumper sticker or a yard sign, and you’re a Tim Kaine fan, you’re my most loyal voter,” Kaine told me after the mini-concert – he played, and sang, “This Land is Your Land,” the 1940 Woody Guthrie folk hit, and “Democratic Donkey,” made famous by West Virginia singer-songwriter Bill Cox back during the Great Depression.



Kaine, and Virginia’s other Democratic senator, Mark Warner, don’t play from the playbook used by other Virginia Democrats, who don’t seem to want to acknowledge that there’s a Virginia beyond the Northern Virginia-Richmond-Hampton Roads crescent.

Kaine and Warner won back-to-back gubernatorial elections, in 2001 and 2005, by running as hard in the west, southwest and south-central parts of the state as they do in the crescent, and they’ve built on that strategy since transitioning from state races to the Senate.

Now it’s the Republican Senate nominee, Hung Cao, who doesn’t seem to want to leave his home base up in Northern Virginia, perhaps just assuming that voters out this way are already in the bag.

And maybe they are, but if that’s the case, shame on us for thinking that way.

“When we’re doing I-81 improvements, it’s Democrats who are supporting the money. When we’re expanding the Affordable Care Act to help folks, it’s Democrats who are doing it. When we’re doing rural broadband development, that’s done by Democrats. When we’re building the Coalfields Expressway, that’s done by Democrats,” Kaine said.

“When you come and listen, you also get your to-do list, and then when you have the chance, you try to do things that demonstrate to people that them sticking with you was not, you know, a lost cause, but we were listening, and we’re trying to act now to help you achieve what you want to achieve,” Kaine said.

Tell that to the guy who thinks rural areas are “podunk” next time he’s out this way.

I know, “next time.”

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].

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