Navy vet has Trump’s nod ahead of Virginia’s US Senate primary, targets Tim Kaine in uphill battle

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Political observers have already placed bets on Tim Kaine, predicting the Democrat will glide into a third term as the junior U.S. Senator of Virginia, a state that hasn’t elected a Republican to the upper chamber since 2002.

But Republicans vying for a chance to unseat the former vice presidential candidate say they see an opening with President Joe Biden at the top of November’s ticket. While Biden won Virginia by 10 percentage points in 2020, GOP primary candidates say the calculus has changed with heightened food prices, illegal border crossings and crime in American cities.

“The only person that was better off today than they were four years ago is an illegal alien,” Republican candidate Hung Cao, a 25-year Navy veteran who served in combat zones, told The Associated Press.

Cao has the most campaign money and past experience running for higher office in a general election among the five contenders in the primary on June 18. He also has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, who stated that Cao would help stop inflation, secure the border and “defend our always under siege Second Amendment.”

Cao’s biography includes fleeing Vietnam with his family as a child in the 1970s. In a campaign video, he compares Vietnam’s communist regime during the Cold War to today’s Biden Administration.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«RELATED COVERAGE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> RELATED COVERAGE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Most US students are recovering from pandemic-era setbacks, but millions are making up little ground