Citizen Kaine: Clinton’s VP Takes His Everyman Persona To State Fair

No trip to Iowa during mid-August is complete without a visit to the Iowa State Fair. So that’s where Virginia Senator Tim Kaine ended up on a hot and sunny Wednesday afternoon. Hillary Clinton’s running mate began the day with a rally in Cedar Rapids, then made the unannounced stop at the State Fair afterward. He’s been well-received so far on the campaign trail as a man with a friendly, “regular guy” personality, and he seemed to thoroughly enjoy his short time at the Fair.

Kaine entered the Fair a ways behind the Cattle Barn, bringing with him a throng of staff, Iowans and reporters. Senate candidate Patty Judge and Congressional candidate Jim Mowrer walked with Kaine on the first leg of his journey, then Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack joined him to wait in line for the Butter Cow.

“Welcome to the best State Fair in the country,” Vilsack said as they neared the sculptures. “Here you have the Butter Cow.”

“I’ve seen the Butter Cow, Congressman Boswell and I toured in 2010,” Kaine told some press as they walked – he visited when he was the DNC chair then. “I saw the Butter Cow then. But it’s the extras, that’s always a surprise.”

Kaine seemed particularly delighted by the butter sculpture of the Star Trek Enterprise. He posed for pictures in front of it while excitedly pointing to the butter starship for a longer time than he spent by the Butter Cow.

Kaine’s route through the State Fair followed the usual candidate track when they have a large following. He and Vilsack stopped many times to chat with fair-goers, including one man in the Agriculture Building with a shirt advocating for awareness of chronic diseases, which they discussed.

Over at the Pork Tent, Kaine and Vilsack turned a couple pork chops on the grill and chatted with the Pork Producer members.

The two held an impromptu press availability with the traveling and local reporters, though both mens’ answers were muffled some by eating pork chops-on-a-stick as they spoke.

“She made the right choice,” Vilsack said when asked about the vice presidential process. He and Kaine were both finalists in Clinton’s vetting.

“She had an embarrassment of riches and I’m humbled to be on the ticket,” added Kaine. “We have history – Tom was finishing his second term of governor when I came in. And Tom was sort of the governor’s governor, especially around an issue dear to my heart, which is really making government work for people – focusing on results that people can measure … Iowa has set such a good example, because you’ve got farming, but then you’ve got wind power on top of it.”

Tim Kaine holds up his pork chop for all to see

They also discussed the state of the race in Iowa, both agreeing that the presidential contest here would be close. A Quinnipiac poll released a few hours before his visit showed Clinton up three percentage points over Trump.

“He’s right, [Iowa] is going to be tight, tough,” Vilsack said. “We’re going to campaign every single day. But I like our ground game. I like that we’re working in every corner of the state.”

Before departing the grill area to meet some more voters, Kaine encouraged the reporters to grab a pork chop themselves before leaving (some did).

On their way out of the fair, Kaine and Vilsack chatted with several more people in the Pork tent, mostly on personal and not political topics. Kaine conversed with one family originally from Guatemala in Spanish. After that, it was back to their bus and off to the next state.

Mike Pence is expected to make a stop at the State Fair on Saturday.

For more on Kaine’s trip, watch our Facebook Live video from earlier and this one:

Here's Tim Kaine munching on a pork chop-on-a-stick while taking a few questions from the press pic.twitter.com/dlbPKNCBQ0

— Iowa Starting Line (@IAStartingLine) August 17, 2016

by Pat Rynard
Posted 6/17/16