Democratic ticket premieres in key battleground of Florida
MIAMI — Hillary Clinton introduced running mate Tim Kaine as “a progressive who likes to get things done,” joining the senator from Virginia in the crucial battleground state of Florida to help kick off this week’s Democratic National Convention.
Clinton said Kaine cares more about making a difference than making headlines, and is “everything that Donald Trump and Mike Pence are not.”
“I like to fight for right,” Kaine said, detailing his life in public service. Speaking at times in Spanish, he drew comparisons between the Democratic ticket and Trump. “Isn’t it great already,” he said of America.
Clinton offered Kaine the vice presidential spot on the Democratic ticket in a phone call Friday night. His selection completes the lineup for the general election. Clinton and Kaine will face Republican Trump and his running mate, Pence, the Indiana governor.
Kaine, 58, was long viewed as a likely choice, a former governor of politically important Virginia and mayor of Richmond who also served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
He also had a particularly powerful backer: President Obama, who advised Clinton’s campaign during the selection process that Kaine would be a strong choice.
The senator is viewed skeptically by some liberals in the Democratic Party, who dislike his support of free trade and Wall Street.
Clinton and Kaine appeared at Florida International University in Miami. Florida is the nation’s premier battleground state, and the bilingual Kaine is likely to be a valuable asset in Spanish-language media as the campaign appeals to Latino Americans turned off by Trump’s harsh rhetoric about immigrants.
Their debut on the trail together came as a cache of more than 19,000 emails from Democratic party officials were leaked ahead of the party’s convention in Philadelphia.
The trove details the acrimonious split between the Democratic National Committee and Clinton’s former rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Several emails posted by WikiLeaks on its document disclosure website show DNC officials scoffing at Sanders and his supporters.
Although WikiLeaks’ posting of the emails Friday did not disclose the identity of who provided the private material, those knowledgeable about the breach said last month that Russian hackers had penetrated the DNC computer system.
On its web page, WikiLeaks said the new cache of emails came from the accounts of “seven key figures in the DNC” and warned that the release was “part one of our new Hillary Leaks series” — an indication that more material might be published soon.
The emails include several stinging denunciations of Sanders and his organization before and after the DNC briefly shut off his campaign’s access to the party’s key list of likely Democratic voters.