Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine gets first Republican challenger for 2024
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Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine gets first Republican challenger for 2024
Emily Jacobs April 03, 01:29 PM April 03, 01:31 PMScott Parkinson, a longtime adviser to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and top Club for Growth executive, announced his 2024 bid to challenge incumbent Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) on Monday.
Despite Parkinson being the eighth Republican to enter the primary race, his conservative bona fides will make him a serious competitor in the crowded field. Virginia Republicans have grown more confident about their statewide electability after Gov. Glenn Youngkin's (R-VA) 2021 victory and the party's performance in the 2022 midterm elections. Parkinson, who serves as the conservative advocacy group's vice president of government affairs, accused Kaine of making a leftward political lurch in recent years that placed him out of step with Virginians.
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"I'm a father, husband, and neighbor. And over the past three years, we needed leaders to stand up and fight for our freedoms," Parkinson said Monday. "Unfortunately, Tim Kaine fought alongside radical leftists to take our freedoms away and destroy the middle class."
Parkinson accused Kaine of morphing himself politically from a Blue Dog Democrat (part of a centrist wing in the Democratic Party) into "a partisan radical that votes with [Sen.] Bernie Sanders [(I-VT)] 94% of the time."
"We feel it now at the kitchen table, the gas station, and the cancelled family vacation," he said. "Virginia cannot afford 94% of Socialism."
"It's time for new conservative leaders like me to fight back against career politicians like Kaine & [President Joe] Biden," the Senate hopeful said. "I look forward to meeting with tens of thousands of my fellow Virginians on the campaign trail & sharing my vision fighting for families & fighting for our freedoms."
Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton’s 2016 vice presidential running mate, has been in office for nearly three decades. He was first elected to the Senate in 2012 after serving as Virginia's lieutenant governor and governor and handily defeated a very conservative challenger in 2018. Kaine was also the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Parkinson, meanwhile, has spent nearly 20 years working in Washington, D.C., for numerous GOP lawmakers and committees. He served as the executive director of the Republican Study Committee, one of the party's largest House caucuses, and as chief of staff to then-Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). He also worked on DeSantis's gubernatorial transition team in Florida.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), who leads the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the party's Senate campaign arm, has been walking a political tightrope — supporting candidates with general election appeal while trying to avoid alienating loyal supporters of former President Donald Trump. The approach marks a shift in strategy from Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), Daines's predecessor as NRSC chief, who faced criticism for Republicans' lackluster showing in the 2022 midterm elections and had a rocky working relationship with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY).
The Club for Growth has squandered a number of Daines and McConnell's candidate recruitment efforts, most recently launching an advertising blitz against former Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) as the two men tried to convince him to run for retiring Sen. Mike Braun's (R-IN) seat. The group, which supports limited government and free-market principles, has thrown its weight behind Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), who also has the endorsement of Donald Trump Jr. for his Senate bid.
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While it is not clear that the club's attacks solely dissuaded Daniels from running, the ad buys were meant to send a signal about the group's ability to make the primary a contentious fight. McConnell and Daines have since gotten behind Banks.
The club appears to be more on the same page as McConnell and Daines when it comes to the Virginia candidate selection process. Parkinson told The Dispatch in late February that he had recently met with NRSC officials about potentially getting in the race. Club for Growth President David McIntosh told the outlet at the time that he believed Parkinson "would make a great senator."
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