Tim Kaine Gets a Warm Reception
-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on April 20, 2017
Senator Tim Kaine received a warm welcome at a Meet & Greet Saturday evening at Dogtown Roadhouse. Kaine had just come from a hike and was in town to attend the memorial dedication for the lives lost during the April 17, 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, which took place when he was Governor. He said he had been traveling around the state all week talking to folks about issues.
The Floyd event was hosted by the Democratic Party of Floyd and organized by the group’s Chair, Deborah Sweeney Baum (pictured with Kaine above).
Kaine addressed the crowd, which Baum estimated to be about 200 people, for about 10 minutes from the Dogtown stage. He spoke of living in a military dictatorship for a time as young man in Honduras and the importance of celebrating participation in elections, whoever we vote for.
Speaking of losing the recent presidential election and the nomination for Vice President, Kaine said, “It was disappointing. I never lost an election before. It was my 9th. I can still say we never lost the popular vote and never lost the Virginia vote.”
Kaine said he was back in the Senate working on legislation a week after the election. He shared with the crowd what keeps him going. After the election, he received a letter from a 4th grader from Charlottesville named Penelope, who wrote, ‘I’m really sorry you’re not Vice President, but Senator is still important.’ She asked if he could help stop her friend from being deported and included a drawing that she made of Kaine wearing a cape. The words “be a hero’ were drawn at the top of the page.
“It’s such a beautiful and diverse Commonwealth where we live. It’s such an honor to represent people in every part of this state. So, to be here in Floyd tonight with you means a lot to me, and I hope everybody has a great Easter weekend,” Kaine concluded.
After he spoke, a line of people formed who wanted to speak directly with Kaine. He talked to attendees one-by-one for about an hour and posed for pictures with them. – Colleen Redman
That’s Joe, Springhouse Community School board member,with Kaine’s wife Anne Holton about project-based learning. Holton is a lawyer and judge who served as the Secretary of Education for the Virginia from 2014 to 2016 and is currently a State Board of Education member. She said they are working to make it possible for schools to do more innovative learning. Kaine also spoke with and posed with one of our Board of Supervisors, Lauren Yoder and his wife Chelsa, who was taking photos for Dogtown (two shots above). Above that is pictured a young couple that came from Radford to meet Kaine. She is studying social work and law, and they both were politically informed.
