Virginia: Washington Post endorses ‘political workhorse’ Tim Kaine

On Monday morning, The Washington Post Editorial Board announced its endorsement of Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia and called him a “model senator,” “political workhorse” and a “credit to Virginia.”

The Post praised Kaine’s work across the aisle, from his legislation to protect reproductive health to his legislation standing up to presidents of both parties to authorize the use of force through Congress.

The Post lauds Kaine as a “credit to Virginia and a valuable player in the U.S. Senate,” arguing he deserves six more years.

“Serious and substantive senators from both parties have decided to retire in recent years, leaving the self-styled “world’s greatest deliberative body” unduly populated with political showhorses. Fortunately, for Virginia and the Senate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D) is seeking a third term,” the endorsement begins.

The Post said that Kaine’s Republican challenger, retired U.S. Navy Capt. Hung Cao, “has an admirable personal story: the 53-year-old arrived in the United States in 1975 as a refugee from Vietnam and eventually chose a military career, serving with Special Operations units in Iraq and Afghanistan. He lost a House bid two years ago.”

However, The Post said, Cao “lacks the temperament and pragmatism to be effective in the Senate and his ideology is out of sync with the increasingly moderate state he seeks to represent.” As a self-described “MAGA” and part of the “Trump America First camp,” Cao has compared President Joe Biden to Communist leaders in Vietnam and said he was “thrilled” that Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Kaine, who celebrates 30 years of elected public service in 2024, began his career as a civil rights lawyer, then joined Richmond City council where he was later mayor, followed by time as lieutenant governor then governor of Virginia. Kaine was the Democratic party’s nominee for vice president when Hilary Clinton ran for U.S. president in 2016.

The Post listed Kaine’s legislative work in the U.S. Senate, such as partnering with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine to attempt to protect abortion rights after Dobbs v. Jackson’s Women Health Organization. With Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, he stood up to presidents of both parties and demanded that Congress authorize the use of military force, instead of abdicating that constitutional responsibility to the executive branch. Last year, the Senate passed Kaine’s bill to repeal the 21-year-old Iraq War reauthorization with 66 votes. Before Sen. JD Vance joined Donald Trump’s ticket, Kaine was negotiating with the Ohio Republican on a proposal to eliminate health insurance co-pays for childbirth.

Kaine, the father of a Marine veteran, has pushed bills to reduce military spouse unemployment and remove barriers to maternal and postpartum mental health care in the military. He has also made it easier for service members to access mental health help confidentially, a law named for Brandon Caserta, who died by suicide in 2018 while stationed in Norfolk.

At 66, Kaine still has energy. He published his first book Walk Ride Paddle: A Life Outside in spring 2024 in which he shares his experiences completing what he called the Virginia Nature Triathlon: he hiked all 559 miles of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia, biked the 321-mile length of the Blue Ridge Parkway and kayaked the James River from the Allegheny Mountains to the Chesapeake Bay.

“Frustrated by the increasingly bitter tone of politics, he considered not seeking a third term, but a Bible verse resonated with him: ‘Do not grow weary in doing good. You will reap a great harvest if you do not give up,'” The Post‘s endorsement said.

“Mr. Kaine’s Senate seniority is valuable for Virginia. As chairman of the seapower subcommittee on Armed Services, Mr. Kaine is helping rethink the Navy’s flexible force structure — not just carrier groups, but unmanned vessels on the surface and underwater — as U.S. strategy shifts toward the Indo-Pacific and countering China. As chairman of the Americas subcommittee on Foreign Relations, he’s trying to get Washington to pay more sustained attention to the retreat of democracy in Latin America. (He took a year off from Harvard Law School to be a Christian missionary in Honduras.) On the Budget Committee, he’s working to devise a debt management policy that makes more sense, and leads to less brinkmanship, than the current law which requires periodic votes to raise the debt ceiling.”