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Incumbent U.S. Senator Tim Kaine opened his night on the debate stage with a message of solidarity for Southwest Virginia in the wake of Hurricane Helene, a storm that ripped through the region and left a path of destruction that federal, state and local agencies are still working to assess: “We’ll be with you during your recovery,” he said.
Kaine’s Republican opponent, retired Navy Captain Hung Cao, lambasted the sitting senator for not being in the region on Saturday, though Kaine had spent Monday and Tuesday in Southwest Virginia, and then pivoted to other topics.
Alpha males and females ripping out and eating their own guts, a drag queen’s inability to win a war, a crack about Asians and math and something about red shirts in Target. Those were among the topics brought up by Virginia’s Republican candidate for U.S. Senate during the televised debate.
Kaine, a Democrat, met Cao for the first time on the debate stage Wednesday night in front of a live audience at Norfolk State University. That audience was instructed to remain silent, but they at times defied those orders with applause or sounds of astonishment.
The questions posed by moderators covered everything from the Longshoremen’s strike to the burgeoning crisis in the Middle East, to the economy, price gouging, education and immigration, military recruitment, reparations, gun control, cost of higher education, funding for historically Black colleges and universities, funding for childcare, reproductive healthcare and the certification of the 2024 election, all within an hour.
Differences — and one surprising point of agreement
Cao leaned on his background as a retired Navy captain and refugee from Vietnam but appeared to have a hard time directly answering questions from the moderators regarding policy proposals to lower the cost of living or whether he supports mass deportations. He at times stumbled over his words and appeared to ramble.
In the first question, when asked about his approach to dealmaking to end the Longshoremen’s strike, he repeated part of his stump speech, saying, “The only people who are better off [than they were] four years ago are illegal aliens, criminals and senators like Sen. Tim Kaine.” Many of his responses to questions, regardless of the topic, involved immigration, but he did not include policy proposals to fix the U.S.’s immigration system.
Kaine leaned heavily on his experience as a lawmaker — 12 years in the U.S. Senate, 8 years as governor and lieutenant governor — and pointed to policy that he worked on during that time as his argument for why Virginians should give him a third term in the Senate.
When asked about his stance on possible mandatory buybacks for firearms, Kaine said he does not support the effort. He noted his support for the Second Amendment as well as his support for reasonable limitations, like a ban on high-capacity magazines and comprehensive background checks at the federal level.
“If we can offer incentives [for gun buybacks] that’s a good thing, but not a mandate,” he said. “The worst day of my life was the day when I was governor and there was the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech. Thirty-two people, innocent people, faculty members killed, and they were killed because we didn’t have a comprehensive background check system that would have stopped that mentally disturbed young man from buying the weapon that he was not authorized to have.”
In a brief moment of bipartisanship, Cao said he was in support of a federal bill co-authored by Kaine that could charge parents or guardians with a violent felony when their children use their guns to commit crimes.
‘Alpha males and alpha females who would rip out their own guts’
When asked about a social media post he wrote about the effect of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, or DEI, on military recruitment, Cao responded by saying, “When you’re using a drag queen to recruit for the Navy, that’s not the people we want. What we need is alpha males and alpha females who would rip out their own guts, eat them and ask for seconds — those are the men and women that are going to win wars.”
Cao argued that Kaine did not have a strong track record of getting bills he proposed passed into law. When Kaine interjected, Cao responded, “There’s two truths in the world, okay? Never walk into a Target store wearing a red shirt and never go against an Asian when it comes to math, trust me.”
The debate became heated on the topic of abortion, with the candidates at times talking over each other. Cao reiterated his support for the 2022 Dobbs decision, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade and sent the issue of abortion back to the states. Kaine said he would work to codify protections that were in place for reproductive health care under Roe v. Wade in the coming Congress.
The weathered politician v. the scrappy political newcomer
The 2024 election marks Cao’s first bid for statewide public office. Cao ran and lost to Democrat Jennifer Wexton in his 2022 bid to represent Virginia’s 10th Congressional District.
Kaine won his first statewide election to lieutenant governor in 2001 and served as governor from 2006 to 2010 before winning election to the U.S. Senate. He also was a member of the Richmond City Council and served as Richmond mayor. Kaine was the chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011, and in 2016 he ran for vice president as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s running mate.
Kaine is ahead of Cao by about 10 points in recent polls, and has far outpaced the political newcomer in fundraising by nearly $13 million.
Wednesday’s debate was the first in the race, and will likely be the only to take place between the two. Cao either did not respond or declined invitations to two other debates and one forum.
A July 20 debate that would have been hosted by the Virginia Bar Association was canceled after Cao failed to commit to the event. Cao’s campaign declined a debate invitation from the Northern Area Chamber of Commerce, scheduled for Sept. 19, along with a candidate form that was to be hosted by AARP on Sept. 13.
Cao was seldom seen on the primary campaign trail as well. He did not attend 12 out of 13 Republican primary forums. He won his primary election handily with about 60% of the vote among a field of five Republican candidates after receiving an endorsement from former President Donald Trump.
