Tim Kaine, the new junior senator from Virginia, was sworn in with the 113th Congress on January 3. Kaine, a moderate Democrat, was able to hold off Republican candidate former Senator George Allen in a narrow race while staying relatively close to the political center.
Kaine’s moderate status could be key to his success—Virginia is a microcosm of America, with diversity and a need for bipartisanship. Characterized as it is by a north-south ideological divide, a Republican House and an evenly divided Senate, an economy reliant both on small businesses and the federal government, and an influx of diverse immigrants in the last ten to fifteen years, the Old Dominion experiences many of the forces that also work on the national level. In the 2008 and 2012 elections, the Northern Virginia suburbs and exurbs of Washington, DC, helped flip the state blue—and the trends responsible for this change are only increasing. At the same time, however, high-profile conservative budget hawk and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor represents a district near Richmond, and southern Virginia remains staunchly Republican.
Kaine may be a fresh face in the Senate, but he is an old hand in Virginian and Democratic politics. He’s served as Mayor of Richmond, Governor of Virginia, was high on President Obama’s short list for the VP slot in 2008, and is coming off a stint as chair of the Democratic National Committee.
The crux of Tim Kaine’s term in office will be how he balances his campaign as a bipartisan who hopes to change the dynamic in Washington with the partisan expectations that come with having served as the leader of the DNC.
His moderate credentials may soon be tested in congressional conflicts, most immediately in the current debate on gun control. As a self-proclaimed “strong supporter” of the Second Amendment, Kaine may find himself on the opposite side of the aisle from many of his Democratic colleagues.
Kaine’s predecessor, Jim Webb, who is retiring from national politics after one term in the Senate, was a moderate Democrat with similar positions on most issues. Virginia’s current senior senator, Mark Warner, is also a former Democratic governor of the state. Kaine certainly deserves a place in this continuum of political elites from the Old Dominion. Kaine has said he intends to work closely with Warner in the Senate, and that he shares with his fellow former governor a centrist attitude with something important to offer at the federal level. Kaine and Warner will have to push harder for compromise than in past years, however, to stem the tide of partisan brinksmanship and strict party-line votes.
Warner leads the bipartisan Gang of Six in the Senate, and was applauded by President Obama for his work across the aisle, but from the debt ceiling to the fiscal cliff, members of Congress have been looking to the likes of Reid, McConnell, Pelosi and Boehner rather than to their peers in the rank-and-file.
With congressional deals marked by partisan negotiation between party leaders and the White House rather than the committee process within the legislature, senators who campaigned as bridge-builders could find themselves losing relevance. Kaine admits in a video thanking supporters after his victory that the 113th Congress will have to do better than the infamous 112th.
So what will Kaine bring to Washington? In terms of new policy initiatives, one could say its unclear. He is expected to reinforce current bipartisanship efforts, but he didn’t run on a hot-button issue. Though his election was contentious, he avoided a destructive swing too far from the center.
It can be useful then to describe Kaine as characterizing one of the conflicts intrinsic to representative politics: disparities between successful strategies at the national and the state level. His moderate views and commitment to bipartisanship have helped him triumph in a closely divided Southern swing state, but Virginia’s prominence in national politics may lead to clashes in the future with the more liberal wing of the Democratic Party and the party’s standard bearer in the White House. The upcoming debates on gun control, as well as the opportunity for bipartisan dialogue in the spending debate, will offer insight into where Kaine will fall in the future.
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