Politics & Government

Warner, Kaine on Clinton VP List?

New York Times: "Hillary Clinton's Campaign, Cautious but Confident, Begins Considering Running Mates"

PHOTOS: Tim Kaine (official US Senate photo); Hillary Clinton photo by Gage Skidmore/flickr; Mark Warner official US Senate photo

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Could there be a Clinton-Kaine or Clinton-Warner ticket running for the White House in the future?

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While Hillary Clinton has yet to secure the Democratic nomination for president, her advisors are beginning the process of compiling a list of potential running mates and they include Virginia's U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, The New York Times reported Saturday.

The campaign is beginning to compile a list of 15 to 20 potential choices, the newspaper reported, and that list includes Warner and Kaine, who are also both former governors of Virginia.

Find out what's happening in Old Town Alexandriafor free with the latest updates from Patch.

A Virginian on the ticket could help win the Commonwealth, considered a toss-up state, in a general election. The state voted for Obama in the past two elections by slim margins and voted for Republicans in past presidential elections at least since 1976.

Warner himself considered a run for the presidency 10 years ago, but bowed out in consideration of his family, The Washington Post and other media outlets reported in 2006. Warner was the valedictorian of his George Washington University class of 1977 and the first in his family to graduate from college. Warner is one of the wealthier members of Congress, often in the top 5, with a minimum net worth reported at $90 million, according to a report by Roll Call/CQ. "The Democrat made his millions in the telecommunications boom, including through Nextel, which eventually was acquired by Sprint Corp.," the report said. Warner can be a fun guy -- in 2013 he played Cupid when he turned over his Twitter account to his press secretary's boyfriend for a proposal, ABC-News reported.

Kaine was an early supporter of Clinton this time around, urging her to run in May 2014. With immigration sure to be a hot topic during the presidential campaign, Kaine's Spanish language abilities (he learned while living in the Honduras) would come into play. He was the first, in 2013, to deliver a speech in Spanish on the Senate floor, talking for 13 minutes about a Senate immigration bill. Kaine can also bring a relaxed factor to the campaign trail, jamming and singing bluegrass and gospel with fellow musicians on his harmonica.

Quick facts

Timothy Michael Kaine

  • Age: 58; born in St. Paul, Minn., grew up in Kansas City, Mo.
  • Education: University of Missouri-Columbia, Harvard Law School
  • Family: Kaine and his wife Anne Holton, Virginia Secretary of Education, have three children
  • In office: U.S. Senator since January 2013; first elected to office in 1994, serving as a city councilmember and then Mayor of Richmond. He became Lieutenant Governor of Virginia in 2002 and was inaugurated as Virginia’s 70th Governor in 2006.
  • In the U.S. Senate, Kaine sits on the following committees: Committee on Armed Services, Ranking Member; Committee on the Budget; Committee on Foreign Relations; Special Committee on Aging

Mark Robert Warner

  • Age: 61, born in Indianapolis, Ind.; grew up in Illinois and Connecticut
  • Education: George Washington University, Harvard Law School
  • Family: Warner and his wife Lisa Collis have three children
  • In office: Currently serving second term as U.S. Senator; first elected to office in 2002, serving a four-year term as Governor. (Virginia is the only state in the country where the governor serves just one term.)
  • In the U.S. Senate, Warner serves on the following committees: Committee on Finance, Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs, Committee on the Budget, Select Committee on Intelligence, Committee on Rules & Administration, Joint Committee on Printing

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