About Governor Tim Kaine
Just the Facts
- Birth Date: February 26, 1958
- Birth Place: St. Paul, Minnesota
- Undergraduate Degree: University of Missouri, 1979
- Law School Degree: Harvard, 1983
- Family: Married to Anne Holton; three children - Nat, Woody, and Annella
- Religion: Catholic
- Party: Democrat
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A Commitment to Keep Virginia Leading the Way
Tim Kaine became the 70th Governor of Virginia on January 14, 2006. He was the first Virginia Governor to be inaugurated at the Colonial Capitol in Williamsburg since Thomas Jefferson.
During Governor Kaine’s tenure, Virginia has been recognized as the most business-friendly state in American (Forbes.com 2006 and 2007; CNBC 2007), the top-performing state government in America (Governing Magazine 2008) and the state where “a child is most likely to have a successful life (Education Week 2007).”
In education, Governor Kaine is moving the state’s focus from competence to excellence. He put into law Virginia’s first requirement for all classroom teachers to receive regular and meaningful teacher evaluations. He is championing efforts to expand pre-kindergarten classes, bring teacher salaries up to the national average and raise the quality of the state’s career and technical programs. Governor Kaine led efforts in 2008 to secure a $1.6 billion bond package to expand college access for Virginians and thereby accelerate economic growth. He helped start the New College Institute, a new public college in Martinsville, to provide higher education opportunity in an underserved part of Virginia.
Governor Kaine has recognized the importance of transportation to Virginia’s economy and the quality of life for its citizens. During his administration, the Commonwealth has seen an historic elevation of the importance of rail and public transit solutions, and innovative practices that more effectively coordinate transportation and land use planning to reduce congestion and ensure transportation dollars are used wisely. Governor Kaine has also worked to increase oversight and accountability at the Department of Transportation, and nearly 80% of projects currently come in on time and on budget. Governor Kaine is committed to immediately finding a funding solution that addresses the transportation needs of the Commonwealth’s two most congested regions and provides needed statewide funding to maintain a safe transportation network. The Administration’s advances in transportation planning and public transportation have been recognized by awards from the Virginia Transit Association and the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association.
In the area of health care, Governor Kaine is focused on improving Virginians’ health and creating better access to the health care network. He is working with small businesses to expand their ability to purchase health insurance for their employees and is working to utilize the state’s technology resources to improve the quality of health care and find cost savings for consumers. In 2007, the Governor and legislature expanded care options for children and expectant mothers, boosted wellness support for state employees, and provided new incentives for expanding the state’s health care workforce. In 2008, the Governor worked with the legislature to fundamentally reform Virginia’s community mental health system, expand the health care safety net for the uninsured and improve services to children in foster care throughout the Commonwealth. He also championed a dramatic expansion of medical education to train the next generation of Virginia physicians.
Governor Kaine shares with Virginians a desire to protect the God-given beauty of the Commonwealth. The Governor and the legislature have invested about $660 million in cleaning up Virginia’s rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. In honor of Virginia’s 400th anniversary, he has also embarked on an ambitious effort to preserve 400,000 acres of open space, farms and forests by the end of the decade, through the use of creative tax incentives and collaboration with environmental groups. Governor Kaine has worked to re-regulate the sale of electric power in the state to protect businesses and consumers while promoting conservation and clean energy generation. He issued Virginia’s first comprehensive energy plan in the summer of 2007 and has appointed a Climate Change Commission to advise Virginia on reduction of greenhouse gases.
Together with these four initiatives, Governor Kaine is committed to improving economic opportunity. Governor Kaine has worked with the legislature to eliminate the estate tax, create Virginia’s first sales tax holiday, take more than 140,000 low-income Virginians off the tax rolls, and give citizens more information to participate in local decisions about property tax rates. Virginia boasts one of the highest median incomes and one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation.
A Lifetime of Public Service
Governor Kaine’s career of public service began when he took a year off from law school to volunteer with missionaries in Honduras. There, he served as the principal of a small Catholic school that taught teenagers basic carpentry and welding skills.
Governor Kaine practiced law in Richmond for 17 years, representing people who had been denied housing opportunities because of their race or disability. He won many precedent-setting cases in this area and was recognized by local, state and national organizations for his fair-housing advocacy. Kaine also taught legal ethics for six years at the University of Richmond Law School.
Governor Kaine entered political life in 1994 and was elected to four terms on the City Council, including two terms as Richmond’s mayor, where he worked to build Richmond’s first new schools in a generation, cut taxes and slash the city’s crime rate. Richmond’s success in reducing violent crime won national recognition from Presidents Clinton and Bush and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The improvements in Richmond’s economy during Kaine’s tenure earned the city its first-ever listing in Forbes Magazine’s annual ranking of the top 10 cities in America for doing business.
Governor Kaine was elected Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor in 2001. He worked for four years with Governor Mark Warner to reform the state’s budget and invest new resources in education.
Governor Kaine has been elected to become Chairman of the Southern Governors Association in the summer of 2008.
The Kaine Family
Governor Kaine grew up in Kansas City working in his father’s ironworking shop. He attended the University of Missouri and Harvard Law School.
Governor Kaine is married to Anne Holton, a former legal aid lawyer and juvenile court judge. Anne’s father, Linwood Holton, was Governor of Virginia from 1970 to 1974, making Anne the only Virginian who has lived in the Governor’s mansion as a child and then as an adult. Anne works diligently to serve the Commonwealth with a particular focus on the needs of Virginia’s children in foster care.
The Kaines have three children – Nat, Woody and Annella – who all attend Richmond Public Schools. The family is active in their church and spends all the time they can in Virginia’s outdoors.