PHILADELPHIA — Sen. Tim Kaine’s inaugural address to the Democratic Party was met with a shrug by those at the convention who were hoping Hillary Clinton would have picked a more liberal running mate.
“I don’t think he knocked it out of the park,” Eric Sunderland, a California delegate, told the Washington Examiner.
Kaine steered clear of issues like abortion, trade and unions, which have defined him as a moderate senator and governor of Virginia, but many delegates who oppose his place on the ticket were there to keep them in the spotlight.
They raised signs opposing the Trans Pacific Partnership, a deal that Kaine had at one point praised, but said he now opposes.
“I think honesty and sincerity go a long way and I didn’t get that,” Sunderland said. “I would have liked to hear him explain how he evolved on all of these important issues.”
Most of the delegates in the arena cheered Kaine’s speech, which focused on talking about his life, praising Clinton and slamming Donald Trump.
“You could see the audience was cheering and lifting up their signs, Isabel Farmer, a Clinton superdelegate from Ohio, said. “He did a good job and he always does a good job when he speaks,”
Kaine spoke in generalities about party issues and sometimes in fluent Spanish.
“It’s nice to have someone who can speak some Spanish and talk to the biggest growing demographic in the United States,” California delegate Joe Salas said.
But Salas, like other liberal delegates, hoped for a more detailed speech that would address issues they value most, such as raising the minimum wage and implementing universal healthcare.
“We want to hear about these specific issues because we support them,” Sals said. “That is what we are looking for as an olive branch.”
Liberal delegates, most of them backers of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, have been unhappy with the convention and say they feel marginalized.
Clinton’s choice of Kaine over more liberal choices like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, or Cory Booker, D-N.J., has deepened the divide, delegates said.
“My initial response is negative based only on the fact that the Democratic Party could have used the nomination for vice president to really try to show the people we are serious about unity between the Hillary camp and the Bernie camp” Delaware delegate Jeff Day said.
Michigan delegate and Sanders supporter David Warren walked out of Kaine’s speech.
“I heard about two minutes of it and that’s all I could take,” Warren told the Examiner. “Tim Kaine represents everything that the Bernie Sanders campaign doesn’t. He’s just another establishment politician.”
Another Sanders supporter, Miriam Sarhan of New Jersey, said she can live with Kaine on the ticket. She praised his direct attacks on Trump, who could appeal to more moderate Democrats and thus shrink Clinton’s chances of winning in November.
“Hillary was strategic,” Sarhan said. “She wanted to pick someone who would be able to connect with voters who are a little more moderate like he is. So it’s politics, at the end of the day.”
