Wife of VP nominee Tim Kaine talks election, Hillary Clinton
West Chester Mayor Carolyn Comitta shares a moment with Anne Holton, wife of Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine during a voter registration event Saturday.
By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times
WEST CHESTER — Anne Holton, wife of Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Kaine visited the borough Saturday with a simple message: vote, and if you’re not registered to vote, get registered immediately.
While it’s doubtful that any of the attendees who overflowed the Church Street campaign office — one of four offices the Hillary Clinton Campaign has in Chester County — aren’t already registered, Holton pushed the attendees to get the message out to their friends and families. The deadline to register to vote in this election is Tuesday, Oct. 11.
Borough Mayor Carolyn Comitta — who is on the ballot for State Representative herself this November — presented Holton with the Key to the Borough and thanked her for her work with children over the years.
Holton stressed the need to get voters registered — suggesting sending would-be voters to IWillVote.com to get registered — and then to get them out to vote on election day.
“When people participate, it’s good for democracy,” she said. “When Democrats turn out, Democrats win, it’s just that simple.”
Holton — daughter of a former Republican Governor of Virginia and who was serving as the commonwealth’s Secretary of Education until Kaine (a U.S. Senator and former Virginia Governor) was tapped as Clinton’s running mate — said she’s gotten to learn a lot about who Clinton is as a person on the campaign trail.
“Hillary is the consummate listener,” Holton said of the presidential nominee. “She loves nothing better than talking to voters, to people everywhere sharing their concerns, their issues, what’s working in their world, what’s not. I watched her cross examine the bus driver one day on the bus tour we did across the state, during a break and she saw the bus driver talking to her children on Facebook back in Georgia, and Hillary starts asking her about ‘how do you do the work/family balance? And what’s working and what sort of sick leave policy do you have?’
“Hillary loves people, loves connecting with people and people love hearing their stories and loves connecting those issues to policies and programs that we, collectively can do to help each other through good government.”
Holton said her husband is aware of the historical nature of Clinton’s candidacy — as the first woman to be her party’s nominee for president — but that he, too, has a historic role.
“Tim is so excited about the historic opportunity he has in this race,” She said. “We’re hearing a lot of history at the top, and we are going to make history at the top, but what about the opportunity to have a strong man in a supportive role to a strong woman, as our first president?”
Holton urged supporters to get to work, noting that the race is likely to be very close, even though she argued it shouldn’t be, based on the quality of the two candidates.
“My husband — he’s my best political advisor, he told me a year ago that this is going to be a close race,” she said. “He said we have the best candidate — head and shoulders — before we even knew who their candidate would be. We have somebody who’s got the strength and the judgment and the experience. She’s a phenomenal leader — and she’s going to be, when we inaugurate her, she’s going to be one of the most qualified people to walk into that office in a very, very long time.”
