Free Republic

Hillary Clinton has selected Tim Kaine as her vice presidential running mate. "I'm thrilled to tell you this first: I've chosen Sen. Tim Kaine as my running mate," Clinton wrote in a text to supporters Friday night, following initial media reports.

HILLARY CHOOSES KAINE Clinton taps Virginia senator as VP running mate FBI DOUBLE STANDARD? Senator stiff-armed over Clinton treatment concerns

Hillary Clinton will reveal her vice presidential choice on Friday in a text message to supporters and then appear with her running mate for the first time at a rally in Miami on Saturday.

Word is that Hillary Clinton will announce her vice presidential choice on Friday, and rumors that she’s going with a “safe” pick should worry Democrats. In this political climate, a search for “safety” could put her candidacy in serious danger. Change vs. the status quo. The GOP chose Mike Pence in part because his extremist views will reassure the Republican base. Pence is also an seasoned politician whose nomination is meant to reassure voters who worry that Trump has no experience in statecraft or governance. (Note to readers: Yes, I just used the words “Trump” and “statecraft” in the same...

Hillary Clinton seems likely to announce her choice for vice president on Friday while she’s campaigning in Florida. That on-the-record hint, which came after days of backstage rumors, came Tuesday while CNN’s Wolf Blitzer was interviewing Karen Finney, a spokeswoman for the Clinton campaign.

LAS VEGAS — Fast approaching her final decision on a running mate, Hillary Clinton appears to be looking closely at Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine and Labor Secretary Tom Perez, say multiple people who are in regular contact with her inner circle. But it’s another member of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet whose stock has been steadily and notably rising in recent days, vaulting him into what close Clinton friends call the “top tier": Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

SAN ANTONIO— A U.S. Office of Special Counsel report released Monday found that Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro violated the Hatch Act, which restricts the political activity of some federal employees, during an April interview with Yahoo News. Castro's statements during the interview, according to a OSC news release, mixed his "personal political views with officials agency business despite his efforts to clarify that some answers were being given in his personal capacity." The department found he violated the act by "advocating for and against presidential candidates while giving a media interview in his official capacity on April...

With Bernie Sanders’ recent appointment of Keith Ellison to the Democratic platform committee, the congressman from Minnesota will start to get some of the attention he deserves. Some have considered the possibility of a Hillary Clinton-Xavier Becerra ticket, which would certainly be interesting. But as a former Sanders supporter, I am near certain that the California congressman will not fire up the young, liberal base that has pushed so hard for Sanders.

Bernie Sanders delegates believe that a number of high-profile names being mentioned as options for Hillary Clinton's running mate are unacceptable, and if she picks one of them, those delegates are be ready to protest the pick in Philadelphia at the Democratic National Convention in less than two weeks. According to a survey of Sanders delegates conducted by the Bernie Delegates Network, the numbers show "big concerns about Hillary Clinton's pending choice of a vice presidential candidate." [Snip] According to the online poll, a "vast majority" of surveyed delegates said that if Clinton picks someone they don't like, they would...

Clinton holds day of VP interviews at her home in Washington By Associated Press Published: 20:44 EST, 15 July 2016 | Updated: 20:44 EST, 15 July 2016 WASHINGTON (AP) — Hillary Clinton summoned at least three contenders vying to become her running mate to her Washington home on Friday as she closes in on a pick for vice president. Clinton met separately with Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, according to a person familiar with the process. The person would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss the private...

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton will be announcing her running mate within the next two months. Yes, that person is more than likely to be Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who is in an important swing state and speaks fluent Spanish, but we can dream, can’t we? Here are 10 African-American and Latino prospects the former secretary of state could select from for a vice presidential nominee.

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine took advantage of the state’s lax gift laws to receive an $18,000 Caribbean vacation, $5,500 in clothes and a trip to watch George Mason University play in the NCAA basketball Final Four during his years as lieutenant governor and governor, according to disclosures he filed. Now a leading contender to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Kaine reported more than $160,000 in gifts from 2001 to 2009, mostly for travel to and from political events and conferences, according to disclosures compiled by the Virginia Public Access Project. The givers included political supporters, a drug company that soon...

PLAYBOOK FACTS OF LIFE on the possibility that Hillary picks Warren for V.P.: A Democratic insider tells us “no way in hell. She hates her, and she doesn’t want a competitor for power in her White House. The ‘V.P. candidate as attack dog’ thing is long over. Every single Democrat is and will be attacking Trump every day.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren has declared herself ready to be Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the US presidential election. The Massachusetts senator – popular among the progressive wing of the Democratic party – made the declaration shortly after endorsing Clinton, calling her “a fighter with guts” who would keep Donald Trump out the White House. In an interview on MSNBC, Warren was asked by Rachel Maddow: “If you were asked to be Secretary Clinton’s running mate, do you believe you could do it?” Her response was concise: “Yes, I do.”

Add Harry Reid to the list of troubles dogging Hillary Clinton as she stumbles toward the Democratic nomination for president. The powerful Senate minority leader delivered an unusual warning to Clinton on selecting a running mate, vowing to "do whatever I can" to stop her from choosing a Democratic senator from a state led by a Republican governor. “If we have a Republican governor in any of those states, the answer is not only no, but hell no and I would do whatever I can, and I think most of my Democratic colleagues here would say the same thing," Reid,...

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro said Tuesday that, despite all the speculation that he's being considered to be Hillary Clinton's running mate, he hasn't been vetted by the Democratic front-runner's campaign. Castro, who endorsed Clinton last year, was asked by CNN's Brooke Baldwin if he would accept a spot on Clinton's presidential ticket and replied, "That's not going to happen." When asked if he had been vetted, or contacted by the Clinton campaign, he said, "I am not ... I haven't heard from anyone." Ever since he gave a well-received speech at the Democratic National Convention in...

You may not have heard of Julian Castro, currently Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, but you will. Hillary Clinton has him very near the top of her list for the veep slot on her ticket. It makes sense: he’s Hispanic, hard left, and the product of an elite education (Stanford, Harvard Law). So serious is the possibility that Page Six reports of him (and his brother Joaquin): “Surprisingly, they don’t speak Spanish,” one insider told me. “They are cramming with Rosetta Stone.” (A spokesman for Julián denies he is studying Spanish.) Julian was Mayor of San Antonio before he...

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton won the backing of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro on Thursday and said she would seriously consider making the rising Hispanic leader her running mate if she wins her party’s nomination. Clinton and the other Democrats in the November 2016 race for the White House have pushed hard for support among Hispanics, a fast-growing and critical voting bloc that has moved toward Democrats in recent elections as Republicans have stymied comprehensive immigration reform in Congress and disparaged Mexican immigrants on the campaign trail. “I am going to look really hard at him for...

The Democratic National Convention isn’t for 13 months, and Hillary Clinton isn’t the party’s nominee, but some Hispanic Democratic leaders are already pushing hard for Julián Castro to be her running mate — or at least a top contender for the job. The former San Antonio mayor and current housing secretary was in Washington while Clinton raised money in his hometown on Wednesday, but his name is on the minds and lips of Democrats close to the Clinton camp as the presidential front-runner crosses Texas for campaign fundraisers and a Houston speech on Thursday. The flashy trial balloon and Castro’s...

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is likely to choose Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Julián Castro or another Hispanic politician to be her running mate, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros said in an interview that will air Sunday. “What I am hearing in Washington, including from people in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, is that the first person on their lists is Julián Castro, the ... Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, who use[d] to be the Mayor of San Antonio,” he said in an interview with Univision’s “Al Punto.”