Kaine will say she's the right person to 'lead this country in a very complicated world.' | AP Photos Kaine backing Clinton for 2016

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, one of the first leading Democrats to back Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 presidential race, on Saturday will urge the latter to run for the White House again, saying she is the right person to “lead this country in a very complicated world.”

The endorsement, to be made at a Ready for Hillary-related event in the key early primary state of South Carolina, comes as Clinton is still weighing whether to run for president a second time in 2016. But Kaine is a significant figure among Democrats, and his early backing of Clinton helps solidify her status as the overwhelming front-runner for the party’s nomination.


Kaine also is to serve up a rallying cry to Democrats by noting that electing a woman remains a challenge — walking the fine line between underscoring the former secretary of state’s inevitability through his endorsement and reminding her supporters they still need to work hard.

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Kaine is a popular Democrat and a former governor of Virginia, a crucial swing state, and his endorsement is an additional talisman to keep potential Clinton challengers at bay. Some Democratic donors had hoped Kaine could be a potential dark horse candidate for president. His decision to back Clinton now, given his ties to Obama, symbolizes the hopes of Democratic donors and Clinton backers for an easy Obama-to-Clinton torch-passing, instead of a bruising primary fight like in 2008. Kaine also has been mentioned as a potential running mate for the eventual 2016 nominee.

Kaine’s endorsement is to come at a Democratic Women’s Council event hosted by the super PAC Ready for Hillary. Obama trounced Clinton in 2008 in South Carolina, a state that other Democrats, such as Vice President Joe Biden and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley have visited repeatedly. Kaine plans to join the super PAC’s efforts, which have been focused on raising grass-roots support for Clinton — the very thing she lacked in her last campaign.

“Secretary Hillary Clinton is the best person to be our 45th President for many reasons,” Kaine was set to say in prepared remarks in South Carolina. “She is a classic American optimist with the background and experiences necessary to lead this country in a very complicated world.

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“She has a deep history of engagement in domestic policy issues — the economy and jobs, education, the equal status of all, children and family programs — that started long before she came to Washington. … She understands the challenges facing Americans from all walks of life and has the compassion and skill necessary to help improve our everyday lives.”

For people such as Biden, who has made clear he is considering a 2016 run of his own and who was part of the ticket Kaine worked to reelect last cycle, early endorsements of Clinton come as a reminder of just how overwhelming an establishment favorite she is now. Kaine backed the insurgent in 2008; he also landed on Obama’s shortlist for the vice presidency then.

Kaine, who was elected to the Senate two years ago, also lays out his support for her in a POLITICO Magazine op-ed posted Friday and, in both that piece and the speech, takes into account the potential hurdles a female presidential candidate will face, even if her last name is Clinton.

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Kaine’s decision to endorse Obama back in 2008 was something of a risk — far more than his endorsing Clinton now — and it gave the then-underdog candidate an early validation at a time when Clinton was the overwhelming favorite for the nomination. Obama had worked hard for Kaine in his own gubernatorial race in 2005.

Hillary Clinton served as secretary of state during Obama’s first term, and has since traveled the country delivering speeches while writing a memoir and preparing for her book tour next month. Despite her waiting to announce a decision about whether she will run for the White House in 2016, an entire shadow campaign has risen around her, with Ready for Hillary and a high-dollar super PAC, Priorities USA, serving as the main vehicles that are keeping challengers at bay.

Clinton has already received several major endorsements, including from Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, a fellow Democrat with whom she previously served in the Senate. And the Senate’s Democratic women — including Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has denied interest in running herself despite ongoing speculation she could take on Clinton — have signed a letter urging her to run.

( Also on POLITICO: Covering Hillary Clinton: A visual history)

Kaine’s endorsement further clears the deck of potential primary opponents on the Democratic side at a time when there’s no clear front-runner, and many possible competitors, on the Republican side.

“Our country will have no shortage of challenges to tackle in the future. … And the very list of challenges on the table tells us who the next president should be,” Kaine was set to say in his remarks. “That’s why I stand with you today to encourage Hillary Clinton to run, to pledge my support for her candidacy if she does and to ask you to make that same pledge.”

On his support for Obama, he was to say, “I made my decision early because I knew something — he was the right person for the job, but getting there would be hard. And I figured that the sooner I started helping him in Virginia, the more helpful I would be. I’m stating my support for Hillary Clinton today for the same reason. She’s the right person for the job. I’ll be starting my fifth year in the Senate on Inauguration Day 2017 and she’s the partner I know I’ll want to be working with in the White House on all fronts.”

But it will be “hard,” he is to say: “If it were easy for women to achieve top leadership spots in this country, Congress would have more than 18 percent women serving. More than 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies would have a CEO. And women would be seated on more than a quarter of the federal benches across the country.”

Kaine has had no real ties to the Clintons, and has a personal relationship with Obama. But he currently represents a state governed by one of the Clintons’ closest friends, Terry McAuliffe, who both Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, worked hard to elect last year.

And in January 2013, as hearings about the attack against the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, were unfolding, Kaine issued a full-throated defense of Clinton, arguing the violence would not be a problem for her if she ran for president and praising her during the proceedings.