NEW YORK, (UPI) — Hillary Clinton is expected to announce Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her running mate Friday morning, sources said Thursday.
Kaine, a popular senator from a battleground state who also speaks Spanish, has apparently beat out
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker for the second slot on the Democratic presidential ticket. The Democratic National Convention begins Monday in Philadelphia.Campaign insiders said Clinton’s top advisor, former President Bill Clinton, has stressed the importance of winning Virginia, with no candidate since 2000 winning the White House without winning Virginia.
But liberals voiced their objection to the moderate, saying it would turn off Bernie Sanders supporters.
“Our presidential ticket cannot beat the billionaire bigot by simply being not Donald Trump,” said Charles Chamberlain, executive director of the liberal advocacy group Democracy for America, in a statement. “To win in November, our ticket needs to have an unquestionably strong record in the fight against income inequality, one of the defining issues of the 2016 election.”
Despite Kaine’s moderate views on trade and banking that upset some liberals, but Kaine also can tout experience as a mayor, governor and senator, and he is choice that doesn’t cost Democrats a seat in congress. Choosing Booker, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown or Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren would have meant a replacement picked by a Republican governor.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a friend and ally to the Clintons, would appoint Kaine’s replacement followed by a special election in 2017.
