A former Navy captain who ran with the backing of former President Donald Trump won Virginia’s Republican Senate primary on Tuesday.
Hung Cao received 61.8 percent of the vote, according to The Hill. The rest of the votes were scattered among four other candidates. Trump noted the win in a post on Truth Social.
Cao will face Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 general election, in November.
“My message to Tim Kaine is: don’t go away mad, just go away. Thirty years getting rich on our dime is more than enough,” Cao said, according to The Daily Signal. “We need fighters to solve our problems, not politicians.”
“A Combat Veteran and Highly Decorated Special Operations Officer, Hung Cao will be a tireless fighter to stop Inflation, grow our Economy, secure our Border, strongly support our Incredible Military/Vets and defend our always under siege Second Amendment,” Trump wrote in May when he endorsed Cao.
I’m honored to receive an endorsement from the 45th and 47th President of the United States Donald Trump! pic.twitter.com/fxAs5Ybrtn
— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) May 27, 2024
Cao ran for the House in 2022, The Hill noted, but lost to Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton.
Will Republicans win control of the Senate in November?
Kaine’s race is currently rated “solid Democrat” by the Cook Political Report.
However, The Hill noted that its survey of polls in Virginia shows Trump and President Joe Biden in a dead heat at 44 percent each, giving Cao an opportunity if Trump does well in the state.
Thank you, onward to victory in November to save our country! https://t.co/VUvDSRtuFT
— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) June 18, 2024
Cao was a refugee from Vietnam when he came to America, and later became a special operations officer in the Navy, according to the Washington Examiner.
Cao has called out the Biden administration for the court cases against Trump.
“We are losing our country. You know it. But you also know that you can’t say it. We’re forced to say that wrong is right. We’re forced to lie,” he said on one ad, per the Examiner.
On election night, he said Biden’s new protection for illegal immigrants “highlights the stakes of this November’s election.”
Tomorrow, we begin our campaign to save the country that saved my life. I spent twenty-five years in the Navy, while Tim Kaine spent thirty years in elected office. The taxpayers signed the front of our paychecks for the same amount of time.
— Hung Cao (@HungCao_VA) June 18, 2024
“Thank you Virginia! For our win to coincide with the date of Joe Biden’s amnesty for illegal immigrants highlights the stakes of this November’s election,” Cao said on X.
“For women like Laken Riley and Rachel Morin, the Biden-Kaine open border policy was literally a matter of life and death,” Cao wrote.
