Members Only I'm Ready for Hillary Why I’m endorsing Clinton in 2016.

Tim Kaine represents Virginia in the U.S. Senate.

In 2006, nearly two years before the 2008 presidential election, I told my friend, then-Senator Barack Obama, that I would support him if he ran for the presidency. I was and am proud that I was one of his first supporters. 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, the more helpful I would be.

Today I’m announcing my support for Hillary Clinton for the same reason. If she decides to run – and I hope she will – she is by far the best candidate we could ask to be our nation’s 45th president, a classic American optimist with the background and experience necessary to lead this country in a very complicated world. 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 getting there will still be hard.

If it were easy for women to achieve top leadership spots in this country, more than 18 percent of Congress would be women. More than just 5 percent of Fortune 500 companies would have a women CEO. And women would be seated on more than a quarter of the federal benches across the country. That’s one more reason why I’m encouraging Hillary to run, pledging my support for her candidacy if she does, and asking others to do the same. And as she makes her personal decision, it’s on us to share why we believe she’s the right choice in 2016.

Hillary has a deep history of engagement in domestic policy issues that started long before she ever came to Washington. When she served as first lady and as a senator from New York, she was a champion on raising the minimum wage, helped build the CHIP program to provide more children with health insurance, promoted women’s rights and fought for our servicemembers and their families. She understands the challenges facing Americans from all walks of life and has the compassion and skill necessary to help improve our everyday lives.

Her work as first lady, senator and secretary of state has given her unmatched knowledge of the world, of our allies and opponents, and of global leaders—public and private—who can be partners for progress in the years ahead. As secretary of state, she helped restore our reputation around the globe, build the coalition for the tough sanctions regime that has brought Iran to the negotiating table to discuss the end of its nuclear weapons program and negotiate a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians that helped avert all-out war in Gaza.

To me, the job description for our next president will include finding ways to grow our economy faster through innovation, education and smart infrastructure investments; make sure all Americans have the mobility to “move on up” instead of being locked into a dead-end of economic inequality; provide affordable health care access to all and defend against those who believe in rolling back all the progress we’ve made; ensure the broader equality of all; keep the promises we’ve made to this proud generation of veterans; and keep America strong in all the necessary ways—strong military, strong diplomacy, strong economy, strong moral example—to be the global leader the world needs.

This list of challenges for the next president alone tells us who that president should be. And I’m going to do everything I can to see that she gets there. I’m ready for Hillary.