In the race to represent the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States Senate, incumbent Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) is challenged by Hung Cao (R). Kaine was first elected to the Senate in 2012 and is in his second term.
Each of the fifty states have two seats in the Senate for a total of one hundred seats. There is no representation, voting or non-voting, for U.S. territories or the District of Columbia. Senators serve six-year terms, and elections are held on a staggered schedule with classes of roughly one-third of the Senate up for election every two years. This year, the thirty-three seats of the first class are in contention.
The Republican Party holds forty-nine seats, the Democratic Party holds forty-seven, and independents hold four. Three independents caucus with the Democratic Party, and another is “formally aligned with the Democrats for committee purposes,” giving the Democratic Party an effective 51-49 majority. Both of Virginia’s Senate seats are currently held by Democrats.
Incumbent: Tim Kaine (D)
Incumbent Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) is nearing the end of his second term representing Virginia in the Senate. He is seeking reelection.
Kaine holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Missouri and a law degree from the Harvard Law School. He served as a law clerk for a U.S. federal court judge, then worked in private practice for law firms in Richmond, Virginia, and as an adjunct professor at the University of Richmond School of Law. Kaine served on the Richmond, Virginia, City Council from 1994 to 2001 and as Mayor of Richmond, Virginia, from 1998 to 2001. He then moved up to statewide office, serving as Lieutenant Governor from 2002 to 2006 and Governor from 2006 to 2010. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012 and stood as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s (D) vice presidential running mate in her unsuccessful 2016 presidential bid.
According to Kaine, he has been “laser-focused on bringing people together to improve the lives of Virginia families,” and “because of his work, Virginia is breaking ground on long overdue projects to fix roads, build rail, boost transit, upgrade our airports, and expand high-speed internet.” Strange, since Kaine has been Virginia’s senator for twelve years and was lieutenant governor and governor for eight years before that. I wonder how these projects got to be overdue in the first place. Maybe that “laser focus” only comes around once every few decades, like an eclipse . . . or a cicada.
Kaine’s claim that he brings people together is also . . . odd. His tenure as governor was marked by partisan bickering about toll roads nobody wanted, massive spending increases, and, finally, the $2.2 billion budget shortfall he left for his successor. In the Senate he has voted in near lockstep with his radicalizing party. He contributed to the rancor and dysfunction around judicial nominations, and even supported the transparently partisan efforts to remove former President Donald Trump (R) from office on invalid or unproved impeachment charges. I guess his promise to ”defend democracy” only applies when the voters pick someone he likes.
On human rights, Kaine denies the right to life, and now endorses establishing a federal “right” to kill unborn children. He used to be moderate on abortion, but now he’s “all-in” with his party’s hateful, metastasized anti-humanism. He now wants federal funding for abortion clinics and U.S. foreign aid for pro-abortion organizations. He’s no better on the other essential rights; Kaine supports policies that would undermine self-defense and due process rights, and favors unconstitutional restrictions on political speech and religious freedom.
Kaine spouts the usual ignorant, unscientific nonsense about “climate change” being an “existential threat,” and he’s proud of interfering with energy development and contributing to your high electric bills. He says he’s in favor of funding law enforcement and border security, but consistently votes against them. On economic matters, he brags about how he helped enact the policies that created and exacerbated high inflation and our lingering post-COVID malaise.
Disappointing, all around.
Hung Cao (R)
Hung Cao (R) stands as the Republican Party nominee to challenge incumbent Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA).
Cao holds a bachelor’s degree from the United States Naval Academy and a master’s degree in physics from the Naval Postgraduate School. He served in the U.S. Navy as a special operations officer for explosive ordnance disposal and deep-sea diving. He has been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia, and had other assignments working on the Navy’s budget and on the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. In 2022, Cao unsuccessfully sought election to represent Virginia’s 10th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. If elected to the Senate, it would be Cao’s first time holding elected office.
Two years ago, I criticized Cao (though I did end up endorsing him) for offering only a “meager set of vague policy proposals.” Now he addresses a broader set of issues, but still provides few details. This is depressingly common when political outsiders challenge established incumbents.
Cao takes the right positions on the key human rights issues. He acknowledges and promises to defend the right to life—the first and most important right. He promises to protect self-defense rights. He supports reasonable regulations, including voter identification, to ensure our elections are conducted freely and fairly. He says he will work to weed-out corruption in government, improve border security, and reverse policies that are contributing to high crime.
On other issues, he says he opposes the postmodern poison that has infected our schools and supports school choice. He wants to reduce burdensome regulations, invest in domestic energy production, and address drug shortages—a growing concern that is getting far too little attention.
One point of disagreement I have with him is his promise to “protect Social Security and Medicare.” These programs are dysfunctional messes; we don’t need to be throwing more money at them. We need to be planning an orderly wind-down that doesn’t unduly harm the people who should be receiving benefits soon. Nobody seems willing to admit these programs are doomed.
Conclusion
Virginia has been poorly served by incumbent Senator Tim Kaine (D). He votes time-and-time-again against the fundamental human rights of life, liberty, and property, against fiscal responsibility, and against our economic interests. We deserve better.
As I said when I endorsed Hung Cao (R) for another office in 2022, his case would be much stronger if he offered a more developed set of policy proposals. But anybody who can demonstrate an understanding of human rights, the role of government, and . . . math . . . is an improvement over the incumbent.
Vote Hung Cao for Virginia’s seat in the U.S. Senate.