Everything you need to know about Virginia’s US Senate race

Virginia voters this fall will choose between a Democratic incumbent with a strong record on reproductive freedom and economic justice and a hard-right Republican focused on the US-Mexico border.

When Virginia voters head to the polls this November, they will vote on who they want to represent them in the US Senate.

The choice is between Democratic incumbent US Sen. Tim Kaine and hard-right Republican challenger Hung Cao.

Kaine has served in the US Senate since 2013 and was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in her failed bid for the White House in 2016. Kaine served as Virginia’s governor from 2006 to 2010 and its lieutenant governor from 2002 to 2006. Earlier in his life, Kaine was a former civil rights attorney in Richmond where he also served as a city council member and mayor.

Cao is a retired Navy captain who came to the US as a refugee from Vietnam in 1975. He served in special operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia. He has never served in elected office. He lost a 2022 bid to represent Northern Virginians in the US House of Representatives in a race for the 10th District to Rep. Jennifer Wexton.

“Kaine has a significant advantage,” said Stephen Farnsworth, a political science professor at the University of Mary Washington in an interview with Dogwood. “He has, of course, greater name recognition and a huge fundraising advantage, and Virginia is less red than it was 20 years ago.”

Below is a look at where each candidate stands on the issues and what their message to voters is.

What to know about Tim Kaine

Kaine is making the case to voters that he has a track record of standing up for Virginians and working to get federal legislation passed to help them with the cost of living.

Here’s how he made his case to voters in a recent radio ad: “I’ve worked hard to pass legislation that makes life better for Virginians, like passing laws lowering prescription drug costs and capping the cost of insulin at $35, bringing good-paying jobs into the community, and helping Black-owned businesses grow.”

On reproductive rights, Kaine believes in fighting against right-wing extremism so people can make their own health-care decisions without interference from politicians. Last year, Kaine introduced the Reproductive Freedom for All Act, which would have protected the right to an abortion and access to birth control.

For Kaine, the current political climate is a battle between people who want to unite in the name of progress and people who are trying to tear the country apart. Kaine says he is optimistic about the outcome of this battle against people like “the greatest teardown artist in the history of American politics,” Donald Trump.

“Virginians are not tear-down people,” Kaine said at an April rally in Alexandria. “Virginians are not negative, pessimistic, complainers. We’re not.”

What to know about Hung Cao

Hung Cao brings a harsher edge in his pitch to voters with a greater emphasis on culture war issues.

“The only person better off today than they were four years ago is an illegal alien,” is a slogan Cao has repeated at a June Trump rally in Chesapeake, in a speech at the Republican National Convention, and in a statement to Dogwood.

The term “illegal alien” is considered offensive to many, and Biden early in his tenure directed federal agencies to stop using it. Asked about his use of the term, Cao said he finds it offensive that people are in the US who should not be and sympathized with Melody Waldecker and Lauryn Ni’Kole Leonard, victims of crimes committed by immigrants.

“I don’t give a damn about their feelings,” Cao said of undocumented immigrants.

Tying immigrants to increased crime is a well-worn xenophobic trope that has no basis in reality. There is extensive research that shows, as one NPR headline recently put it, “Immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born Americans, studies find.”

But because of the scare-tactics used by Cao and his right-wing peers, the false myth that immigrants commit higher rates of crime persist. And while Republicans like to complain about immigrants being a drain on American society, the truth is that undocumented immigrants contribute untold billions to the economy.

To give just one example, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022 which help fund services like Social Security and Medicare that they will never be able to take advantage of because of their immigration status, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

In Virginia, undocumented immigrants contributed $689.8 million in state and local taxes in 2022, according to an analysis by The Commonwealth Institute, which also found that undocumented immigrants pay higher state and local taxes than the top 1% of households in Virginia and 39 other states.

“Immigrants strengthen Virginia,” Freddy Mejia, policy director at The Commonwealth Institute said in an interview with Dogwood.

Cao staunchly opposes abortion care and says his stance on the issue is one of the biggest differences between him and Kaine. Cao has also equated diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts with communism, downplayed the importance of healthcare to Americans, and blamed climate change on things like Canadian wildfires.

“This November, we have an opportunity to get our country back on track,” Cao said in a statement to Dogwood. “When I’m elected, I will secure our border, protect Social Security, and get prices under control.”

So different are their two visions for America that the candidates even appear to have differing views on witchcraft, which Cao raised concerns about in an interview that’s been circulating online.

July was the month when I pardoned Virginian Grace Sherwood posthumously for a bogus 300 year old witchcraft conviction. My Senate opponent is deeply worried about witchcraft…in 2024! So THAT’S why they’re scaredy cats! pic.twitter.com/ZTFbYePgw3

— Tim Kaine (@timkaine) July 31, 2024