Tim Kaine Reflects on Pain of Losing the Vice Presidency in 2016 – and What John McCain Told Him (Exclusive)

Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine was set to become the United States vice president, according to 2016 polling that decisively predicted a Clinton-Kaine administration. So it's no surprise that, when vote counts began telling a different story on election night, the Democrat experienced an unforeseen gut punch as his plans for the future circled the drain.

A lot has changed in the past eight years, including Kaine's outlook on the world around him. In 2019, the senator began a years-long journey to hike Virginia's 559 miles of Appalachian Trail, cycle 321 miles along the Virginia Blue Ridge, and canoe the entire 348-mile James River.

As Kaine navigated the outdoors during Senate recesses, he thought a lot about his life, career and how unprecedented recent events in America tell a story about the nation. He turned his nature-inspired observations into an optimistic new book titled Walk Ride Paddle: A Life Outside, which will be released on Tuesday, April 9.

In an exclusive excerpt from Kaine's book that was written at the start of his adventure, the former vice presidential candidate reflects on the whirlwind 2016 campaign, his feelings after losing, and how he clung to the post-election advice from late Sen. John McCain as he began his wilderness journey. Below, a piece of his story.

Kaine was honored to be chosen as Hillary Clinton's running mate, even as she acknowledged it may not have been the most strategic choice. During and after his 105 days of campaigning, he writes that he experienced "a million emotions."

During the 2016 campaign, I went to 140 cities in forty-one states. Anne and I did nearly one thousand events and media appearances. The original plan was for us to travel together, but when the team saw how good Anne was, they gave her a separate itinerary so we could cover more ground. The entire experience was a blur, with days and nights running together. But some experiences stand out—good and bad.

Kaine experienced several highs on the campaign trail (like playing the harmonica with Jon Bon Jovi) as well as lows (like when his cell phone number got released to the public). But the hardest moment came 10 days before the election, when the FBI reopened an investigation into Clinton's emails. Kaine started to question whether they would win.

I watched our lead drop every day as those inconsequential emails became the closing story in the campaign.

As I went to my neighborhood polling place in Richmond on Election Day, I still thought we would win but was less confident than most on the team based on a simple data point: in 2008, with the chance to make history in electing the nation’s first African American president, the early voter turnout of Black voters was amazing. People wanted to do all they could to see Barack Obama in the White House. In 2016, when we hit late September and early voting started in key states, I looked for a similar surge of women voters hoping to make history—Hillary would, of course, be the first female president—but I didn’t see that same surge and it worried me.

The Clinton campaign would soon face difficult news as the Electoral College swung in Trump's favor.

And then election night. It was clear within thirty minutes of Virginia’s polls closing that we would win the state by more than President Obama had won it in 2012. Having spent so much time trying to help Virginia catch up to the rest of the nation on issues of equality and inclusion, that helped me relax a bit. But Virginia was not the only state undergoing change. While our state is growing younger and more diverse, others are not following the same trend. We ended up winning the popular vote by millions but lost the race. (Ever since, I’ve called myself an “Electoral College dropout.”) We conceded the next morning. I was inspired by Hillary’s patriotic message urging all to accept the result but press forward on the values we hold dear.

Hillary could have made history by being the first woman president. She could have done something very rare in American history by winning a third Democratic presidential term in a row. She could have overcome the Russian disinformation campaign designed to help Donald Trump. She could have succeeded despite the FBI’s shocking intrusion into the race at its most critical moment. She could have done any three of these four things. But she could not surmount all those challenges at once.

After losing the election, Kaine had little time to bounce back mentally, soon returning full-time to his job as a United States senator.

Five days later, I was back in the Senate. The first colleague who came to see me was Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain. He knocked on my office door early Monday morning, and I remember the conversation like it was yesterday.

“Tim, I’m the only person in the Senate today who knows exactly how you feel,” he said. “We’ve both been on a national ticket and lost. And you know what? The only medicine is to just go right back to work. Now give me Hillary’s number so I can call her.”

I’ve worked hard to follow John’s advice. That same day it occurred to me: “The Senate might be needed to save this country.” I decided right then that I didn’t need to sort out all my feelings right away. Just like at the end of a hike, I simply needed to stuff them in my pack and carry on, knowing that I would have time later to sort it all out. This walk—nearly three years later—is part of that process.

Taken from Walk Ride Paddle by Tim Kaine. Copyright © 2024 Tim Kaine. Used by permission of Harper Horizon, an imprint of HarperCollins Focus, LLC.