This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/us/politics/hillary-clinton-tim-kaine-vice-president.html

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine Debut Ticket in Battleground of Florida Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine Debut Ticket in Battleground of Florida
(about 3 hours later)
The vetting is over — the hard choice has been made. And on Saturday, Hillary Clinton and Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia made their debut as a presidential ticket, offering Democrats the first glimpse of the team that will take on Donald J. Trump in the general election. MIAMI — Hillary Clinton debuted her running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, to boisterous and bilingual cheers here on Saturday, calling him a “progressive who likes to get things done” even as some liberal Democrats began making clear that they were disappointed with her choice.
Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Kaine appeared at a 1 p.m. rally at Florida International University in Miami, showing up nearly an hour late. The joint appearance was meant to give the campaign a burst of energy as Democrats head to their national convention on Monday, starting the formal process of nominating Mrs. Clinton. “I have to say, Senator Tim Kaine is everything that Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not,” Mrs. Clinton said, drawing a quick contrast with the Republican ticket as she introduced her own No. 2 to the nation.
“Tim Kaine is everything Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not,” Mrs. Clinton said in introducing her running mate at the rally. “He is qualified to step into this job and lead on day one.” Mr. Kaine bounded up to the microphone, appearing immediately comfortable in his brand new role as Mrs. Clinton’s top cheerleader and a weapon against Mr. Trump. He slipped easily between English and Spanish, animating the receptive and mostly Latino crowd at Florida International University by mixing political rhetoric with homey reflections on his own life story.
The rally came a day after Mrs. Clinton announced her selection in a text message to supporters Friday night, saying that she was “thrilled to tell you this first: I’ve chosen Sen. Tim Kaine as my running mate.” “Fe, familia y trabajo,” he said, explaining to the crowd of more than 5,000 people that faith, family and work defined his life.
Mr. Kaine peppered his speech with Spanish, telling the crowd, “Somos Americanos todos” — “We are all Americans” — an implied dig at Mr. Trump and his attacks on immigrants. But even as Mr. Kaine sought to flex his language skills to appeal to Hispanic voters, he and Mrs. Clinton were also trying to mollify a growing backlash from the left against his record of support for global trade deals, which many voters in Rust Belt states blame for the loss of American manufacturing jobs.
Mr. Kaine also went after Mr. Trump more explicitly, hitting his record as a casino mogul in Atlantic City and the defunct Trump University. Mr. Kaine had been one of 13 Senate Democrats to vote in support of giving President Obama “fast track” authority on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation pact that has become a lightning rod this election year. But aides to both Democrats signaled on Saturday that Mr. Kaine would soon publicly adopt Mrs. Clinton’s current position on TPP and say that he no longer supported the agreement in its current form.
“He leaves a trail of broken promises and wrecked lives wherever he goes,” Mr. Kaine said of the Republican nominee. After praising the Trans-Pacific Partnership as secretary of state, Mrs. Clinton said during the Democratic primary against Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont that the pact did not meet her “high bar” on protecting American workers.
The rollout of his candidacy in Florida is no accident. Florida is a crucial battleground that will be hotly contested in the fall, and Mrs. Clinton is moving swiftly to press her advantage with the state’s large Hispanic electorate, many of whom have been turned off by Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigration policies. Progressive groups have offered mixed reviews of Mr. Kaine, with MoveOn.org Political Action saying it supported him in light of the “racist, bigoted” message coming from Mr. Trump.
The university is also a major melting pot, with a student population that is 61 percent Hispanic. For the Clinton campaign, it was an opportunity to showcase Mr. Kaine’s fluency in Spanish, a language he learned as a missionary in Honduras. Democracy for America, a liberal group that backed Mr. Sanders, agreed with the anti-Trump sentiment but said that the selection of Mr. Kaine was not helpful to the progressive movement.
The conventional rollout of Mr. Kaine as vice-presidential choice comes in sharp contrast to the haphazard unveiling by Mr. Trump of Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana last week as his running mate. That was plagued by leaks, waffling and a postponed announcement that was ultimately made by Mr. Trump, now the Republican nominee, on Twitter. They held their joint appearance at a Manhattan hotel, and Mr. Trump did most of the talking. “Kaine’s support for fast-track authority for the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership and recent backing of bank deregulation will make our work more difficult,” said Charles Chamberlain, the executive director of Democracy for America.
Mrs. Clinton spent months mulling her options and also gave serious consideration to Thomas E. Perez, the labor secretary, and Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey. Ultimately she went with Mr. Kaine, who is seen as a solid and safe selection, even though some in the party’s progressive wing will be disappointed. Liberals looking for a sign from Mr. Sanders himself did not immediately get one. Mr. Sanders, who did not endorse Mrs. Clinton until about two weeks ago, has not commented about her vice-presidential selection or mentioned it on Twitter, where he spent time on Saturday promoting a higher minimum wage and warning of the dangers of fracking. A spokesman said Saturday that Mr. Sanders would most likely discuss it in his interviews on Sunday talk shows.
For Mr. Kaine, who was on President Obama’s vice-presidential shortlist eight years ago, the biggest challenge will be adjusting to the national spotlight and embracing the role of attack dog. He gave it a try last week during somewhat of an audition with Mrs. Clinton in Virginia, assailing Mr. Trump as selfish and divisive and testing out a few new searing lines. Some supporters of Mr. Sanders on social media said that the choice of Mr. Kaine was more evidence that their “Bernie or Bust” missions must continue. Others who were resigned to Mrs. Clinton, however, said that they could live with her choice.
“Do you want a trash-talker president or a bridge-builder president?” Mr. Kaine asked the crowd. “I have not heard or read of one Sanders supporter who seems excited,” said Steve Todd, a delegate for Mr. Sanders from Pennsylvania who said he had hoped that Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts would be on the ticket.
The selection sets in stone a general election contest that has two starkly different candidates at the top of the ticket, but two running mates with long government experience both in Congress and at the helm of state governments. Still, Mr. Todd added that Mr. Kaine seems to be up to the task: “He is more than competent for the job.”
Mr. Trump selected as his ticket mate Mr. Pence, a former congressman with whom he had little prior relationship. He was chosen to help the New York businessman win the support of far-right conservatives who are skeptical of Mr. Trump’s social positions and to calm the nerves of establishment Republicans. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Kaine were clearly aware of the complaints and sought to address them head on. Mrs. Clinton highlighted his work on fair housing issues and gun control measures in the aftermath of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting that killed 32 people, when Mr. Kaine was governor. “Make no mistake,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Behind that smile, Tim also has a backbone of steel. Just ask the N.R.A.”
Mrs. Clinton has called Mr. Pence the “most extreme pick in a generation,” highlighting his positions against same-sex marriage and abortion rights and his support for prayer in schools. The rollout of Mr. Kaine’s candidacy in Florida was no accident.
Within hours of being tapped by Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Kaine was already taking fire from Mr. Trump, who ridiculed him on Twitter for accepting lavish gifts as governor of Virginia. The Trump campaign also unleashed a new moniker for the Democratic vice-presidential candidate: “Corrupt Kain.” The state is a crucial battleground that will be hotly contested in the fall, and Mrs. Clinton is moving swiftly to press her advantage with the state’s large Hispanic electorate, many of whom have been turned off by Mr. Trump’s hard-line immigration policies.
Both candidates are hopeful that their running mates will each help deliver their home states in November. Mr. Kaine, who took a year off from Harvard Law School to work with Jesuit missionaries in Honduras, wasted little time showing off his bilingualism, often thrusting his fist in the air and looking back and flashing a wide grin at Mrs. Clinton, who sat on a stool behind him.
Mr. Kaine is very popular in Virginia. The state has trended Democratic in recent elections, and Mr. Obama captured it in 2008. His victory ended a decades-long losing steak for Democrats, who had not won there since Lyndon B. Johnson’s election in 1964. Mr. Kaine will be charged with ensuring that does not change. “Bienvenidos!” he told the crowd here, welcoming them in Spanish and declaring he and Mrs. Clinton would be “compañeros de alma in this great lucha ahead,” Spanish (mostly) for “soul mates in the fight ahead.”
Mr. Pence’s state, Indiana, is reliably Republican in presidential contests, although Mr. Obama narrowly carried that state in 2008. Mr. Pence will be under pressure to keep it in the red column. In an implicit contrast to Mr. Trump’s rollout of Mr. Pence, when he dominated the microphone as his vice-presidential candidate stood silently for much of the time, Mrs. Clinton perched on a stool, nodding and cheering, behind Mr. Kaine as he spoke for about 40 minutes.
Despite the buzz surrounding vice-presidential selections, the data shows that they tend to have little effect on the outcomes of general election contests. But as Mr. Kaine spoke, the Trump campaign’s rapid response operation sprang into action. It blasted out emails in rapid succession citing his “job-crushing” record in Virginia, claiming he lacked any achievements as governor and deriding him as a career politician.
While Mr. Kaine is well liked by the Democratic Party’s establishment, his appeal among the broader electorate remains unclear. A Monmouth University poll conducted in June found that just 9 percent of voters were more likely to back Mrs. Clinton if she picked Mr. Kaine, while 13 percent were less inclined to do so. After a wide search that began in April, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers hoped Mr. Kaine could help Mrs. Clinton bridge the wide divide she faces with male voters who favor Mr. Trump by double digits, according to the latest New York Times-CBS News poll. White men favor Mr. Trump by 26 percentage points.
“At best, they can help with a specific constituency or in a key state,” Patrick Murray, of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said of running mates. “At worst, they can demonstrate poor decision-making on the part of a person who aspires to be leader of the free world.” But Mr. Kaine’s positions on trade could also hurt the Democratic ticket in this regard. Part of Mr. Trump’s appeal has been his steadfast, if unspecific, promise to bring jobs back to economically depressed parts of the country, largely blaming the decline on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which his own running mate also supported.
“Tim Kaine has been praising the Trans-Pacific Partnership and has been pushing hard to get it approved. Job killer!” Mr. Trump posted on Twitter on Saturday.
Mr. Kaine promptly assumed his role as Trump slayer, criticizing his business record and foreign policy positions. “We’ve seen again and again when Donald Trump says he has your back, you better watch out,” he said.
He told the crowd that his son Nat, who was in the audience here and is a Marine, would soon be deployed to Europe to “to uphold our military commitment to NATO,” a knock at Mr. Trump’s comments that he would reconsider the United States alliance.
“For many of you, this is the first time you’ve heard my name,” said Mr. Kaine, who had shot to fame the night before when Mrs. Clinton’s campaign announced him as her No. 2 in a text message to supporters.
He explained his upbringing in the Kansas City area, how he worked in his father’s union-run iron working shop and picked up Spanish in the shop. Both he and Mrs. Clinton talked about their faith — he a Catholic and she a Methodist.
“It became like my North Star, the organizing principle for what I wanted to do,” Mr. Kaine said of the religion he learned at Jesuit school.