Virginia Senator Election 2024: Tim Kaine beats Trump-backed challenger Hung Cao

Democratic incumbent Senator Tim Kaine has been projected to retain Virginia’s U.S. Senate seat, defeating Republican challenger Hung Cao, as reported by the Associated Press.

Kaine, who was first elected to the Senate in 2012 and re-elected in 2018, will now serve his third term. Before his time as a senator, he held numerous public offices, including positions on Richmond City Council, as mayor of Richmond, as Virginia’s lieutenant governor, and as governor of Virginia. Hung Cao, a retired Navy captain and former refugee from Vietnam, has not previously held an elected office. He made an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2022 against Representative Jennifer Wexton.

Senator Tim Kaine secured re-election with a margin of 6 percentage points over Cao, despite Cao’s attempts to appeal to conservative voters across Virginia. The Associated Press called the race around 11:22 p.m., over four hours after polls closed. Kaine will now represent Virginia for a third six-year term, with his margin of victory expected to increase as more votes are tallied.
Kaine’s winning margin was anticipated to be larger than Vice President Kamala Harris's in her bid for the presidency in Virginia. At the time the Senate race was called, Harris held a 3-point lead over former President Donald Trump in the state.


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Trump endorsed Cao in the June primary, where Cao won decisively over four other Republicans. Cao also appeared on stage at several Trump rallies and at the Republican National Convention in July. This marks Cao's second unsuccessful federal election bid, following his 2022 loss to Wexton in Virginia’s 10th Congressional District by 6 percentage points.

Kaine’s victory came shortly after Trump held a last-minute rally in the southwest region of Virginia to boost the Republican vote in a traditionally conservative stronghold. However, this effort did not yield the desired results for Republicans on Election Day.
“When Tim Kaine launched his re-election campaign, I was certain it would lead to another emphatic victory. Yet, as is his nature, Tim spent the past seven months tirelessly engaging with and listening to voters across the Commonwealth,” said Susan Swecker, chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia , in a statement. “He never takes anything for granted, embodying a leader who is present, works relentlessly, and champions every Virginian. He’s exactly who Virginians need in the Senate during these challenging times.”
The Republican Party of Virginia has not yet responded to requests for comment.
Who is Hung Cao?

Cao, who fled Vietnam as a child, has centred his campaign on his personal story. In a widely-shared ad, he strikes a desk dramatically, declaring it’s “the scariest sound you’ll hear in a communist country. “I'm Hung Cao. My family was among the last to escape Saigon before it fell to the Communists. I know what it’s like to lose a country. We are losing ours today. November 5th is Liberation Day. President Trump and I will save America and make it great again.”
Cao created a memorable moment alongside Trump during a visit to a Vietnamese commercial centre, where Trump addressed the crowd, remarking, “I don’t know what it is, but the Vietnamese community loves me, and I love them.” In classic Trump style, he continued, “Hung Cao’s name alone should get him elected. I think he has a great chance of winning. We need his community’s full support because he can definitely win.”