Virginia Senator Tim Kaine has been chosen by Hillary Clinton as her running mate in the 2016 presidential election. The decision was announced on Friday night on Clinton s Twitter and Facebook accounts.Introducing Kaine, Clinton wrote:Tim is a lifelong fighter for progressive causes and one of the most qualified vice presidential candidates in our nation s history. But his credentials alone aren t why I asked him to run alongside me.Tim s a man of relentless optimism who believes no problem is unsolvable if you re willing to put in the work. That commitment to delivering results has stayed with him throughout his decades-long career as a public servant.She concluded,  So join me and Tim, and let s get to work and go win this thing. Kaine was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, the year President Obama was elected to the White House.In 2005, he defeated conservative Republican Jerry Kilgore in Virginia s gubernatorial election, and served as governor of Virginia from 2006 to 2010. After that he served as Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011.Kaine received widespread kudos in Virginia for his response to the horrific Virginia Tech gun massacre where 32 people were killed:Kaine was universally praised for a sensitive and commanding response to the 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech. He returned from a trade mission to Japan and quickly gathered highly regarded experts to lead an inquiry. After the panel reached its conclusions, Kaine was able to get sweeping mental-health reforms passed in the General Assembly.That made him even more of an annoyance to the NRA, and while they have spent heavily to hurt him (and they gave him an  F  for his record on guns), he beat them and won. A few months ago he backed up Clinton for speaking out about guns and the NRA.Other Democrats argue that Clinton has nothing to lose. Sen. Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.) said the NRA has become a  paper tiger,  noting the elections he s won despite the NRA s vocal opposition. Kaine said: I think she has no illusion that even if she didn t say a word about guns, the NRA would be out there blasting her to say she had a conspiratorial plan to work with the U.N. to take everybody s guns away, so why not go head-on on an issue that will improve safety. Well, if the NRA hates him, that s definitely a great check mark for Senator Kaine. Congratulations on your selection, Senator. Clinton/Kaine 2016!Featured image via YouTube