Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., gives his his wife Anne Holton a hug during a rally in Richmond, Va., Monday, Aug. 1, 2016. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) (Steve Helber/AP)

RICHMOND — Tim Kaine delivered an emotional thank you Monday night to friends he made over two decades in Virginia politics, during a homecoming rally 10 days after Hillary Clinton tapped him for the Democratic presidential ticket.

“This will be the hardest speech I will give during the entire campaign. I have already given some hard ones,” he said to a cheering crowd. “What I know about public service you taught me.”

“Like Hollywood and baseball,” Kaine said, politics was what you read about in the newspapers when he was growing up in Minnesota, the son of a welder — not something he envisioned himself excelling at.

In a speech spanning nearly an hour, Kaine flashed the Virginia knowledge and knowhow that many observers believe will help Clinton win the swing state in November. Until recently, the state was such a reliably Republican stronghold that Democrats all but wrote it off.

“Let’s face it we didn’t really have to do our best work,” he said. “We’ve come out of the shadows, we’re on the main stage, the spotlight’s on us, the pressure’s on us to do the best work!”

Republicans panned Kaine for adjusting his rhetoric on guns, abortion and other issues to suit the state’s changing demographics.

“Governor Kaine wouldn’t recognize Senator Kaine,” RNC spokesman Garren Shipley said in a statement before the rally. “Virginia voters won’t recognize him either. That’s why they’re going to elect Donald Trump and Governor Pence in November.”

[Tim Kaine’s zigzag path to gun control]

Prospective voters filled the gymnasium at the newly built Huguenot High School, a setting that reinforced the community roots of Kaine and his wife Anne Holton. As a former Republican governor of Virginia, Holton’s father integrated the public school system and the couple has attended a predominantly black church for decades.

Supporters in the mostly white crowd Monday night waved “America’s Dad” signs and cheered “Yes we Kaine” to back the candidate.

Kaine teared up talking about Holton, who sat on a stool on stage. He said their careers took parallel tracks – a potent message in an election featuring the first woman presidential nominee of a major political party. Holton resigned as state education secretary when Kaine got the call to run as vice president.

“Women again and again and again provide support for men to do great things in politics,” he said. “This election gives men a chance to sit down and support strong women.”

At the end of a weekend swing through Ohio and Pennsylvania, Holton reprised some of the pitch the campaign made to the factory workers and middle-class whites that strategists say the ticket needs to win in November.

“I know he’s going to be a great partner to Secretary Clinton because he’s been such a great partner to me,” she said.

Several attendees said they had never considered voting for Donald Trump, but once Kaine joined the ticket they resolved to volunteer and get more involved in the campaign.

“I like Hillary but I just wish she would get some things cleared up,” said Renee Crenshaw, a 55-year-old account executive from Richmond. “Just do an Obama speech like he did on African Americans. Do that on your email, do that on Benghazi.”

“He brought Richmond together, he really did,” said Patricia Aldridge, 59, a professor at Virginia State University. “He definitely recognizes that people are humans first and color second.”