Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have announced their vice presidential running mates. But while we’ve been focused on Donald and Hillary for several months, these vice presidential candidates are fairly unknown and it’s difficult to know exactly who they are and what they stand for. As a result, I thought it was a great time to give you all an overview of who they are.
Donald Trump selected current Indiana governor, Mike Pence, to run alongside him. Mike Pence is a lot of things that Trump is not. He is soft spoken, has vast political experience, and a strong Christian faith. Part of his political experience has been in the executive branch as governor. He is known for economic reform in Indiana as he cut taxes and funded education while creating economic recovery. Before becoming governor he was in the US House of representatives from 2001-2013 for the 2nd and 6th district. During that time he was also the chairman of the Republican Conference from 2009-2011.
On the issues, he is pro-gun, radically pro-life, against LGBTQ rights, and favors cutting taxes for the upper class. Donald Trump and him differ on a few issues such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact with Asian countries(Pence supports it, Trump does not), banning Muslims(Pence does not support it, Trump does). Pence is an advocate for making abortion illegal and banning same sex marriage, Trump takes more of a center approach to these issues.
In terms of his non political life, he is 57 years old. He was born in Colombus, Indiana. He is married to Karen Pence and they have 3 children: Audrey, Michael, and Charlotte.
Hillary Clinton selected Tim Kaine as her running mate. He is a current Virginia senator(elected in 2012) with over 20 years of public service experience. He was first elected in 1994 as a councilman on the Richmond City Council. He became mayor of Richmond in 1998, and he served up to 2001 when he was elected Lieutenant Governor. He later was elected governor and served from 2006-2009. He is no foreigner to the democratic party as he served as the chairman for the Democratic National Committee from 2009- 2011. He is an asset as Virginia is a swing state, that he can hopefully help Clinton win easily. He is also known as an aisle-crosser(defending what is right, not necessarily along party lines), which could help appeal to Republicans and Independents.
On the issues, he favors tax reform, supports same-sex marriage as well as the Affordable Care Act. All of those he agrees with Clinton on. He does differ with Clinton on issues of abortion and trade. Though he is moving more to the left on abortion, he says he morally opposes it but supports Roe V. Wade and the women’s right to choose. Kaine praises TPP, differing from Clinton who has come out strongly opposed to it.
He is 58 years old and was born in Saint Paul, MN. He is married to Anne Holton whom he met at Harvard Law School. They have 3 children: Woody, Annella, and Nat.
This Thursday I will have a post all about TPP, which was mentioned several times in this post. So make sure you are following along so you don't miss out on any new posts(every Tuesday & Thursday), just enter your email in the widget on the sidebar.
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