Tim Kaine to Seek Third Term in US Senate
RICHMOND, Va. — U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., ended weeks of suspense Friday morning when he announced he intends to seek a third term in 2024.
“I am happy to announce that I will seek reelection in 2024 to keep delivering results for Virginia,” Kaine said after an early morning economic development roundtable with young local business leaders in Richmond’s East End.
Speculation about Kaine’s future has been ripe ever since he told the Richmond Times-Dispatch earlier this month that he had not made a final decision on seeking another term, but would do so before February.
Standing outside a Richmond coffee shop Friday, Kaine admitted he’d been “grappling with what to do,” but ultimately concluded, “I’m a servant, I love Virginia, I’m proud of what I’ve done … [ and] I’ve got a whole lot more I want to do.”
The prospect of Kaine potentially retiring had been worrisome to the Democratic Party, which sees Kaine as its best chance of holding on to the swing state in what is expected to be a tough reelection year for Senate Democrats.
Kaine, 64, is best known nationally as Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election, a race they lost to Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
But he continues to be incredibly popular in Virginia, where he has been a fixture on the political scene since his first successful run for the Richmond City Council in 1994.
He went on to serve as lieutenant governor and governor, before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue
