U.S. Senate candidates Tim Kaine and Hung Cao met at Norfolk State University Wednesday night for their only agreed-upon televised debate.
WAVY-TV 10 anchor Tom Schaad and WRIC anchor Deanna Allbrittin posed questions to the candidates on topics ranging from the cost of living, education and reproductive rights.
Here’s how the candidates responded to the big questions:
PORTS STRIKE
Moderators asked the pair what each would do if he were part of the negotiations between United States Maritime Alliance and the International Longshoreman’s Association, which has stopped activity at East Coast ports, including the Port of Virginia.
“The economy is hitting us all the same way, that’s why the ILA is going on strike,” Cao said. “Were you better off today than you were four years ago? The answer across the board is no, the only people better off today than they were four years ago are illegal aliens, criminals and senators like Tim Kaine.”
Albrittin asked Cao to respond more directly to the question to which he responded there is a lack of leadership, but didn’t lay out any changes he would suggest to address concerns about the ILA’s contract.
Kaine said he isn’t aware of the specifics of what the ILA wants, but the group is “entitled to better treatment.”
“A lot has happened in the last six years since the ILA had their last contract,” he said during the debate. “You've got to bring the terms, wages and benefits up to where they should be, circa 2024. Paying them like it's 2018 doesn't cut it.”
The union is pushing for major pay increases and a ban on automation to protect dockworkers’ jobs.
REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Cao said he wants to support policies that make it easier to create families, like encouraging private insurance companies to cover IVF treatments and making adoption easier (he noted one of his five children are adopted).
And while he didn’t say during the debate whether he wants to protect abortion access, he did say he agreed with the 2022 Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which allows states to decide whether to allow abortions, among other impacts.
“I would not sign any national bill that would ban abortion,” Cao said. “The Supreme Court did the right thing to send it down to the states.”
Sen. Kaine took a stronger stance and said the Supreme Court’s decision was a mistake.
He now carries the only bipartisan bill in Congress that would codify Roe v. Wade, so it couldn’t be overturned by a court.
“Women should be protected to make their own reproductive decisions before the point of fetal viability,” he said.
But Kaine, who previously voiced what he called a faith-based opposition to abortion while maintaining his political support for access when he ran for Governor in the early 2000s, also said he supports reasonable limitations on the procedure.
He cited Virginia’s rules as an example and said the state is a good model for a federal law.
CLIMATE
While debate moderators didn’t ask candidates directly about climate change, candidates mentioned issues related to climate throughout the debate.
Cao spoke about energy independence as a way to address the climbing cost of living, but highlighted his support of nuclear power over wind and solar.
Speaking to reporters after the debate, Kaine said the Inflation Reduction Act has provided an opportunity to address climate change mitigation through some of those funded projects.
Kaine also cited ongoing economic development projects, many in Hampton Roads, as efforts that will address climate change, such as a $681 million submarine cable manufacturing plant in Chesapeake that will support offshore wind development.
That project, and a $208 million upgrade to support electric vehicle production at a Volvo plant in Southwest Virginia, were supported by the Inflation Reduction Act.
“We need to implement (the Inflation Reduction Act), and if we do, the great thing is these bills not only help us on climate change, they're great for the economy and Virginia is harvesting huge investment,” he said.
Kaine said Cao supported repealing the Inflation Reduction Act. Cao didn’t say that during the debate, but has been critical of the legislation on his social media.
Cao did not meet with reporters after the debate.
HOUSING
Moderators told Cao and Kaine one in five homeowners and half of renters in Virginia spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs.
Kaine said as inflation comes down, lower interest rates will open up more funding for homebuyers, especially first-time homebuyers, and will likely encourage some homeowners to move out of starter homes, freeing up more affordable housing stock.
“A lot of people in their first homes now, they don't want to move to a second home, because they're not going to be able to get as good an interest rate on their mortgage,” he said. “With interest rates coming down, they can move, and that will open up a lot of starter homes for families that are looking to buy the first home.”
Kaine said for renters, the federal government should expand the existing Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. He’s a sponsor of the Senate version of a bill to do that.
The LIHTC program makes it more affordable for developers to build multi-family projects, especially ones with units that will be priced below market rate. Ideally, that saving is reflected in rental prices.
In 2023, about $28 million worth of Low Income Housing tax credits were issued to projects in Virginia.
Moderators asked Cao how he would address America’s estimated 5.5 million unit housing shortage.
“The problem we have right now is that we're paying a billion dollars a day to feed and house illegal aliens in this country,” Cao initially responded. “We're taking care of them better (than) we've taken care of Americans.”
When prompted again to answer the question, Cao responded: “In Northern Virginia where I live … the cost of living is very, very high. But if we can build affordable housing further south and have more … mass transit to bring people up there to work in the Northern Virginia area, then that's how we're going to solve the problem.”
EDUCATION
Education came up several times during the debate, across several topics.
Both candidates agreed there was room for improvement and wanted to ensure continued funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, like Norfolk State University, where the debate was held.
“I don't know why they have to come hat in hand every single year. Let's make this a permanent thing and just move forward,” Cao said, referring to HBCU funding. “Education is the only equalizer out there. Let's allow for people to pull themselves up and start giving back to this country.”
Kaine focused on his record of putting money toward HBCUs, both as Governor of Virginia and during his first two terms as a U.S. Senator.
“We could go for a walk right after this event and I could show you buildings on this campus that were built because of bond packages I supported as a lieutenant governor and governor, and I could also show you programs on this campus that I have supported as United States Senator,” he said.
Education also came up as both candidates talked about the possibility of reparations for descendents of enslaved people, an idea Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris supported in 2019 as a U.S. Senator.
Reparations have been proposed as a way for descendants of enslaved people to make up for the loss of opportunity to build generational wealth. Descendants of enslaved people, for example, didn’t have the same amount of time across generations to work for fair wages or access to the same educational opportunities, which compounds over time.
Kaine referenced existing federal legislation that would look at the need for reparations, and said the best thing to do regardless to address inequality is focus on education.
In broad terms, Cao agreed with Kaine, saying education was his preferred way to tackle the issue at the heart of reparations.
“Our country needs to heal, and we can't keep healing if we keep picking up the scabs,” he said.
He mentioned several times he wants to find ways to incentivize colleges to keep tuition costs low or stable.
He expanded on his idea when discussing student loan debt relief:
“We need to withhold federal funding for any colleges that keep pumping up the tuition cost. Why does college cost so much?” he said. “How come these large colleges have such large endowments, and they're not co-signing for these loans? That's the people we need to go after.”
Student loans can only be written by banks or credit unions or the U.S. Department of Education.
IMMIGRATION
Cao repeatedly mentioned undocumented immigrants throughout the debate, falsely claiming they cost the United States millions of dollars because the government provides housing, food and other services.
He said the issue is personal to him: His family fled from Vietnam in 1975 and found their way to the United States, where he said his parents waited seven years to go through the naturalization process.
“The last thing that my dad had hanging over his bed when he passed away two years ago was his naturalization certificate,” Cao said.
But when asked to describe a policy position on how to deal with undocumented immigrants already in the country and how to improve the immigration system, Cao had few specifics.
“If you came here illegally, you are basically screwing up the whole system … you can’t jump the line,” he said. “You can't come here and expect the American dream if you're not willing to obey the American laws and embrace the American culture.”
Kaine said he doesn’t support amnesty, which would grant undocumented immigrants living in the United States citizenship with few or no conditions attached.
Instead, he said, he has tried several times to pass legislation that would strengthen border security and provide better pathways to citizenship for immigrants.
The proposals come with large price tags — a 2013 version was $45 billion and a 2018 version was $25 billion. But according to Kaine, immigration reform can actually help the economy.
“If we do an immigration reform, it allows people to come here and work,” he said during the debate. “They will pay taxes. They will contribute to the Social Security trust fund. Their productivity … like my opponent’s and families like mine who came here from Ireland in the 1850s, they will help grow the economy.”
After the debate, Kaine said more about how immigration reform can positively impact the economy:
“The biggest topic about immigration in Virginia that I hear about is the workforce,” he told the media.
“The unemployment rate is low and the birth rate is low, and so it's our employers that are asking, ‘Do comprehensive immigration reform so we can have the workforce we need.’”
