Election 2016: Anne Holton Says 'We All Learn From Each Other' as she Campaigns for Husband Tim Kaine

“Every age has its challenges,” Anne Holton tells Patch as she heads from one campaign stop to another on the Sunday before Election Day. “You can’t escape the divisiveness that is out there, but it’s not the first time, and it may not be the worst.”

Holton, wife of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine, speaks from experience.

She was 12 years old in 1970 when a federal judge ordered that Virginia’s schools be desegregated. Her dad, who most people knew as Virginia Gov. Linwood Holton, responded by sending his children to Mosby Middle School, which had been all black.

“Going in, my dad was very careful to include us in the decision-making process,” she says. “He made us feel like we were involved, made sure that we understood what was going on. We knew we were playing a role in history.

“There were death threats and protests outside of our house,” she says. “Racial animosity was very, very high at the time. My dad helped us recognize that we were part of a bigger picture.”

It was a lesson that stuck with her. In high school, students were told to research their family history. Holton used the opportunity to find out about slaves that had been owned by her family on her mother’s side.

“I thought it was important to understand my family’s history, where we came from and how we changed,” she says. “And I looked for wills and property documents and found how my family owned slaves until the Civil War.

“We have changed, Virginia has changed — certainly in the past 40 years. But we are constantly reminded that these issues are long-term projects.”

Holton says that, growing up, she and her siblings were always told by their dad that they had to make the most of every day.

“It was Dad’s mantra,” she says. “Everyday is a new opportunity. He would say it to us when he woke us up each morning.

“His lessons, the experiences that we had in school, gave us all a taste of the honor and privilege that comes with public service, a chance to understand how important it is to work for others. And it made us all more conscious of the issues of race and racial conciliation.”

Holton adds that “the experiences drove home that we are a country of different people from different backgrounds. That diversity is our strength.”

As she has moved through life, Holton has tried to build on that lesson.

Holton went to Harvard Law School, where she met Kaine in a legal aid program that helped inmates; she focused on the criminally insane and prison conditions. She worked as a Legal Aid lawyer representing low income families and foster children. She was a judge. She was Virginia’s secretary of education.

The whole time, she has always tried to remember: “We all learn from each other.”

Traveling the country in support of the candidacy of her husband and Clinton, Holton has tried to get that message out there. It has not always been easy.

“There is so much of what Tim refers to as demographic anxiety,” she says. “People see their world changing and it makes them nervous. This is the time we need people to lead people in a positive way.

“We have made so much progress as a country, but we have so much work still to do. Being out there every day, meeting people, I am reminded of the work still to do, the need to — as my father said — see every day an opportunity.”

Holton says that we live in a time where there is so much to focus on, from infrastructure problems to the fact we have troops in harm’s way — her son is a Marine Corps officer currently in Eastern Europe helping train allies — that people need to work on helping each other, not tearing each other down.

“I try to stay hopeful,” she says. “I am definitely a half-glass-full sort of person. At the same time, I have to admit that I find it discouraging that the race is as close as it is. It wold be one thing if it was a close race because of a strong disagreement over differences in policy. We are a country that needs to work together, to recognize that we can — and need to — learn from our differences."

Holton says that making history involves taking a chance, involves being willing to take a stand.

"In 2007, Tim stood in Richmond, in the shadow of the Confederacy, and became the first elected official outside of Illinois to endorse Barack Obama. You have to be willing to stand up for what you believe," she says.

This election, she says, is no different.

“We have a chance to show ourselves and the world the kind of country we want to be.”

Photos courtesy Mary Ellen Glynn