According to CNN there are six candidates being vetted for VP. Here is where all six stand on trade.
UPDATE: Adding Al Franken to the list based on this Politico story although I am somewhat skeptical.
Tim Kaine — Supports TPP, Supports CAFTA, Supports NAFTA and said he feels strongly about it, too.
Julian Castro — Supports TPP, Supports CAFTA, Supports NAFTA but not too many public statements.
Tom Perez — Supports TPP, Opposes CAFTA, Opposes NAFTA but not many statements before 2013.
Xavier Becerra — Opposes TPP, Opposed CAFTA, Regrets NAFTA and opposed most deals after 2001.
Elizabeth Warren — Opposes TPP, Opposes CAFTA, Opposes NAFTA but few statements before 2013.
Sherrod Brown — Opposes TPP, Opposed CAFTA, Opposed NAFTA and wrote books opposing trade.
UPDATE: Al Franken — Opposes TPP, Opposed CAFTA, Regrets NAFTA and ran on fair trade platform.
With Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, and now BREXIT, making fair trade a central campaign issue, on which Clinton changed her views over time, I don’t see how she can pick Kaine, Castro, or Perez.
Sherrod Brown should be the fair trade candidate, but the Senate is just too important to risk now. Maybe it would be worth giving up a seat in the Senate to persuade Rust Belt voters, or maybe not.
Either way, I suspect trade, combined with questions about how moderate Kaine really is and how inexperienced Castro and Perez might be, too, is why many on Daily Kos prefer Warren or Becerra.
UPDATE: For reference here is the full quote from Tim Kaine which I was pretty shocked to read too:
May 30, 2007 (Bloomberg) — Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine, parting with some fellow Democrats, said he’s “passionate” about strengthening global-trade ties and that those advocating protectionism have a “loser’s mentality.”
“The only way you’ll succeed is by being an aggressive competitor rather than trying to hoard your dwindling assets,” Kaine, 49, said in an interview yesterday in Washington with Bloomberg News editors and reporters….
Kaine, whose administration has made three international-trade trips since he was elected in 2005, said some state skeptics are becoming believers. He cited spending on factories in Danville, Virginia, 266 miles southwest of Washington, by Swedish furniture retailer Ikea and India’s Essel Propack Ltd., which makes toothpaste tubes.
Without identifying him, Kaine cited the views of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who was quoted in the New York Times last year as saying of free-trade agreements: “I was a critic of Nafta, I was a critic of Cafta and I’ll be a critic of Shafta.”
“I always laugh when I hear that, but I really think that it’s wrong,” Kaine said. “This is something I feel really passionate about.”