ELECTION 2024 The only debate between incumbent Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine and Republican challenger Hung Cao came down to two starkly different views of the nation and its future. "This country has taken a dark turn, and the Democrats are turning this country into what I ran away from," Cao, who came to the U.
S. as a refugee from Vietnam, said in his closing statement at the end of a one-hour debate Wednesday night at Norfolk State University. Kaine said in his closing statement: "The choice is pretty clear.
For Virginians, you want results or you want extremism. I led my city [Richmond] to a renaissance as mayor. That's still continuing.
"When I was governor, we were best state for business, best educated, best managed state. In the Senate, I've worked on powerful legislation so that we are building again." For Cao, a retired U.
S. Navy captain who previously sought a Northern Virginia congressional seat in 2022, the issue of immigration seemed to dominate from the start. Asked in the evening's first question how he'd like to see the dockworkers' strike settled he replied: "The only people better off today than there were four years ago are illegal aliens, criminals and senators like Sen.
Tim Kaine. We've spent a billion dollars a day to house and feed illegal aliens." On GOP presidential candidate former President Donald Trump's call for mass deportations, Cao said: "If you came here illegally, you're basically screwing up the whole system.
There's people that are waiting in.