As the first, largest, and wealthiest English colony in the New World, Virginia has a rich political history reaching back to our nation’s founding.
Four of the first five presidents – Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe – were Virginia-born. In total, by birth, Virginia has provided eight American presidents – that’s more than any state – and two vice presidents.
In July, when Hillary Clinton announced her presidential running mate, the commonwealth made history again.
Though not born in Virginia, vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine moved to Richmond after graduating from law school in 1983. Here, he opened a legal practice specializing in housing rights for the disadvantaged. A Virginian by choice rather than by birth, for more than twenty years he has represented this state’s population in several roles: as a Richmond City councilman from 1994 to 1998, as Richmond’s mayor from 1998 to 2001, as Virginia’s lieutenant governor from 2002 to 2006, as governor from 2006 to 2010, then finally as a U.S. senator from 2013 to the present.
Tim Kaine is pictured here with wife Anne Holton, at his 2006 gubernatorial inauguration.
