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Sen. Timothy “Tim” Kaine

Senator for Virginia

pronounced TIH-muh-thee // kayn

Kaine is the junior senator from Virginia and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 3, 2013. Kaine is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025. He is 66 years old.

Photo of Sen. Timothy “Tim” Kaine [D-VA]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2022 Report Card for Kaine.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Kaine is shown as a purple triangle in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Kaine has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2019 to Apr 20, 2024. See full analysis methodology.

Committee Membership

Timothy “Tim” Kaine sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Kaine was the primary sponsor of 12 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 12 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Kaine sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (26%) International Affairs (19%) Education (14%) Labor and Employment (10%) Armed Forces and National Security (10%) Taxation (8%) Public Lands and Natural Resources (7%) Crime and Law Enforcement (6%)

Recently Introduced Bills

Kaine recently introduced the following legislation:

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Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.

Voting Record

Key Votes

Kaine voted Yea

Conference Report Agreed to 83/16 on Feb 14, 2019.

This bill, in its final form, funded the parts of the federal government whose funding was to lapse on February 15, 2019. On December 22, …

Kaine voted Not Voting

Bill Passed 72/26 on Sep 28, 2016.

The Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (H.R. 5325) is an appropriations …

Kaine voted Yea

Joint Resolution Passed 78/22 on Sep 18, 2014.

Missed Votes

From Jan 2013 to Apr 2024, Kaine missed 80 of 3,921 roll call votes, which is 2.0%. This is on par with the median of 2.8% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: