Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine (left) and Republican Hung Cao are vying for one of Virginia’s U.S. Senate seats in one of the most closely watched races of the 2024 election season. (Photos courtesy Kaine for Virginia and Hung Cao for Congress campaigns)
In a high-stakes faceoff on Wednesday at Norfolk State University, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and his Republican challenger Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain, drew stark contrasts in a debate that underscored their divergent views on the economy, immigration, green energy and the role of government in education.
The lively, one-hour debate at the historically Black university marked the first and only televised encounter between the two candidates less than five weeks ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
Cao was the first to dodge a question when co-moderator Deanna Allbrittin of Richmond TV news station WRIC asked him what kind of deal he would try and broker with members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) who went on strike Tuesday, leaving cargo in limbo at East and Gulf Coast ports, including at the Port of Virginia.
“The economy is hitting us all the same way, that’s exactly why the ILA is doing the boycott right now and going on strike,” Cao said. “The only people better off today than ever four years ago are illegal aliens, criminals, and senators like Tim Kaine.”
Cao said that the U.S. is spending “billions of dollars a day to house and feed illegal aliens” — money that he believes would be better spent supporting local economies and benefitting American workers.
“Again, they’re hurting because of the immense inflation that is going on right now,” Cao said of the longshoremen when pressed again by Allbrittin about what “a good deal” between the ILA and the the United States Maritime Alliance would look like.
Cargo delays expected as workers strike at East, Gulf Coast ports, including Port of Virginia
“Just like with the hurricane that’s going on right now, where’s the leadership? Joe Biden is on the beach, Kamala Harris is with a bunch of billionaires doing a fundraiser, and Tim Kane is at a pig roast. If it has to do with Ukraine, or if it’s about illegal aliens, they’re all over it. But if you’re an American, you’re on your own.”
Responding to Allbrittin’s question, Kaine said that the longshoremen haven’t had a new contract in six years, and that they were entitled to better treatment.
“That’s what I would be urging if I was in the room,” he said, adding that he was on the phone earlier on Wednesday with acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Sue. “If you’re in the room, what you’re doing is you’re trying to get the sides to come closer, and that’s what they’re doing. We are narrowing the differences, and I think we’re gonna find a deal.”
Kaine, who is seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate, has previously served as the mayor of Richmond from 1998 to 2001, lieutenant governor from 2002 to 2006, and governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010.
In the Senate, Kaine has focused on issues such as national security, education, and healthcare — a background that he touted repeatedly at Wednesday’s debate and used to position himself as the best choice for continued leadership in the Senate.
“The choice is pretty clear for Virginians: do you want results or you want extremism?” Kaine said. “When I was governor, we were the best state for business, the best educated and best managed state. In the Senate, I’ve worked on powerful legislation so that we are building again with infrastructure, we’re making again with manufacturing, and we’re innovating.”
In return, Cao, a former special operations officer in the Navy who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia before his first unsuccessful run for political office challenging U.S. Rep. Jennifer Wexton, D-Loudoun, in 2022, used his background as an immigrant to proclaim his patriotism.
“When Vietnam fell, we had nowhere to run to. But this great country called the United States took us in and gave us an opportunity and gave us life,” Cao said. “But this country has taken a dark turn and the Democrats are turning this country into whatever I ran away from.”
Both candidates presented different visions for how to improve economic conditions in a country still struggling with inflation, price gouging and a cost of living that remains higher than at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic more than four years ago.
For Cao, the answer lies in American energy independence, which he called “the crux of everything.”
Democrats under the administration of President Joe Biden have made the United States dependent on oil “from countries that hate us, you know, Iran and Venezuela and the Middle East,” Cao said. “We need to be energy independent in this country, and that means unleashing all the energy we can get in order to bring forth American power.”
Cao also said that he would support former President Donald Trump’s plan for slapping new tariffs — basically important taxes — on foreign goods entering the United States, which he said would create more factory jobs, shrink the federal deficit and lower food prices.
“What we need to do is not tax our industries here, what we need to do is tax other countries bringing in goods, because our people are getting tax here and when they bring abroad as well,” Cao said.
Kaine countered that under the Biden administration, the United States is producing more domestic energy than at any time in the nation’s history.
“The good news is the production is nuclear, which I support, natural gas, which I support, but also wind and solar, and that is making a huge difference in the economy right here in Hampton Roads, with the Chesapeake announcement of GreenLink building a manufacturing facility here,” Kaine said, referring to the plans by a subsidiary of South Korea-based LS Cable & System to spend over $680 million to build a submarine cable manufacturing facility.
Kaine added that the U.S. economy has rebounded faster than any other nation after the pandemic, which he said was owed, in part, to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act signed by Biden in 2021 and 2022.
“The Fed just dropped rates and they are signaling that they’re gonna do it again,” Kaine said. “What would I do? Let’s continue to invest in clean energy that’s affordable.”
Kaine and Cao both clashed on their views of immigration, when the Republican nominee skirted a question by co-moderator Tom Schaad of WAVY-TV whether he supports a plan proposed by former president Trump to mass-deport all undocumented immigrants.
“If you come here illegally, then you need to leave, especially if you’re a violent crime person,” Cao said, adding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement data recently provided to Congress showed that more 13,000 immigrants convicted of homicide are living outside of ICE detention.
Kaine responded that he had supported “strong immigration policies” since he was first elected to the Senate, including a proposal that included $45 billion in border security investment which was blocked by Senate Republicans.
“In 2018, I cobbled together a bill with $25 billion for border security in exchange for protection for Dreamers. President Trump said that he would support it, but when the Senate introduced the bill in a bipartisan fashion, he told them to kill it,” Kaine said. “As soon as we can get Republicans to work for common sense immigration reform, we can keep folks from coming here illegally and we can also have the workforce that America needs.”
When Schaad asked both candidates whether they supported “some form” of reparations for the descendants of enslaved Americans, Kaine and Cao agreed in a rare moment of bipartisanship that the best way to try and eliminate persistent inequalities is to focus on education.
“I have been a proud backer of funding for HBCUs like Norfolk State, helping this university to get funding for STEM careers for students, helping HBCUs start medical schools, and training the next generation of classroom teachers,” Kaine said.
Cao concurred, calling education the “only equalizer out here.”
“Our country needs to heal, and we cannot heal if we continue picking at the scabs. That’s why I want to make sure that all Americans have the ability to go to school,” he said.
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