CHARLOTTE — President Obama often touts ending the war in Iraq as one of the 2008 promises he kept during his first term. On Tuesday night, former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, now running for Senate, gave a hint at how that accomplishment can play on the campaign trail.
Kaine addressed the Democratic National Committee Tuesday night, highlighting his past term as DNC chairman and touting Virginia as a purple state. He also suggested that the winding down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan can be an electoral boon to Democrats in states will big military populations like Virginia, and North Carolina.
“[Obama] said he’d end the war in Iraq, and he has,” Kaine said. “He said he’d draw down troops in Afghanistan, and today every Virginia National Guard unit is home for the first time in a decade, and we’re so happy.”
Kaine’s speech included language focused on veterans and the military industry.
“Next week, we commemorate the 11th anniversary of 9/11. Many Virginians lost their lives at the Pentagon that day and in the wars we’ve fought since,” he said. “As governor, I went to funerals of Virginia Guard members. I know people who lost their kids and soldiers who returned, their lives forever changed. Their sacrifice reminds us we’re not Democrats or Republicans first. We’re Americans first.”
Virginia is home to thousands of military personnel, and Kaine seems to be hoping the slow end of the wars that began under President George W. Bush will boost his candidacy as well as the president’s.
The PollTracker Average shows Kaine’s Senate race to be a virtual dead heat.
