Vice President hopeful Kaine introduces himself — again — to Iowans

PHILADELPHIA - Vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine paid his respects Wednesday to Iowa and its delegation to the Democratic National Convention, saying he's looking forward to campaigning there again.

The Virginia senator selected to be Hillary Clinton's running mate talked about his Iowa ties and praised the state's 'small ‘d' and big ‘D' democratic tradition.”

'It always makes my heart soar when I get the chance to come out,” he said during a five-minute chat with the Iowa delegates at their daily breakfast meeting. That was long enough to mention his aunt and uncle in Fort Madison, riding the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa in 1996 and campaigning for Barack Obama in Iowa in 2008 and Clinton this year.

Kaine, who was accompanied by his wife, Anne Holton, who until Monday was Virginia secretary of education, also praised retired Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, who was in the room, as 'one of my favorite public servants in the history of the world.”

He called Harkin's signature legislation, the Americans with Disabilities Act, 'one of the pinnacle achievements of our nation.”

He also drew on his Midwestern roots - he was born in Minnesota and raised in Kansas City - to bond with Iowans.

Growing up in his father's 'Iron Workers-organized welding shop,” Kaine, 58, said he never had reason to think he would be running for vice president.

'If you had told me, or my parents” - Albert and Mary Kaine, who are with him at the convention - 'that I was going to be here in July of 2016, they would have not believed it,” he said.

That's because in his family, politics was like baseball or Hollywood.

'You would read about it in the paper, but we never knew anybody whose name appeared in the paper,” Kaine said. 'It seemed like a complete different world.”

But for the past 22 years, politics has been his world - first as a member of the Richmond City Council, then as mayor, lieutenant governor and governor before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012.

'I haven't lost a race,” Kaine boasted. 'I specialized in nail-biters. Every race has been as close as can be, but I never lost one and we're not going to lose this one.”

The 2016 presidential election may be less about the candidates than 'America looking in the mirror and deciding what we see there,” Kaine said.

The questions facing voters are whether after 240 years of religious tolerance the country 'is suddenly going to erect a religious test and treat people differently because of how they worship or choose not to.”

Will the country bring back torture and 'make it OK to use words of disrespect against people who are disabled, Latinos, new Americans, against women?”

'That's what this race is about,” Kaine said.

It's ironic, he said that as GOP nominee Donald Trump is talking about re-evaluating the nation's commitment to NATO, his oldest son, a Marine Corps infantry commander, is being deployed to train NATO forces.

'We've got a lot at stake, but I know you, I know your passion, I know your commitment to democracy,” Kaine told the Iowans. 'I'm honored to have a chance to stand with you as I have in the past and I can't wait to be out in Iowa campaigning with you.”

Before he left, Kaine was invited to the Iowa State Fair and the northern Iowa Democrats' Wing Ding fundraiser in August.