Clinton Running Mate Tim Kaine Rouses Crowd of Black Faith Leaders in New Orleans

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine told a crowd of predominantly black faith leaders gathered in New Orleans on Thursday that progressive policies are the route to addressing inequality in the country.

He said that only by electing Democrat Hillary Clinton as president will issues like poverty, education and racial injustice be tackled, earning several “Amen”s as he spoke for nearly an hour.

“When we are faced with injustice, you’ve got to name it and you have to fight it and you have to be true to principles,” said Kaine, a former civil rights attorney who currently serves as a U.S. senator from Virginia.

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But Kaine, who is Catholic, easily won over the packed house that gathered Thursday in a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency to hear from him during the Progressive National Baptist Convention meeting. Frequently slipping in quotes from Scripture and overt references to Biblical themes, Kaine often drew applause, and the crowd gave him a standing ovation at the end.

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He leaned heavily into stressing the need to tackle racial inequality in the country.

“I’ve never been treated badly in life because of my skin color or my gender. If I’ve been treated bad in life it’s because the other person was a jerk or I deserved it,” said Kaine, who is white, drawing enthusiastic cheers from the crowd. “I think the burden is on those of us who are in the majority–Caucasians. We have to put ourselves in a place where we are the minority.”

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