If this turns out to the first formal newspaper endorsement in the upcoming 2020 Presidential election, then so be it. We would be proud to have such a distinction because we are so solid and centered in our choice. It isn’t due just to the fact that Sen. Tim Kaine was in the City of Falls Church to deliver a keynote speech in front of a record number at the annual local Democratic committee potluck in the Community Center.

Of course, Sen. Kaine is in the midst of a energetic re-election campaign, having learned just yesterday that his GOP opponent in November will be someone who takes pride in out-Trumping Trump, a rabid right wing bigot named Corey Stewart who won the Republican primary Tuesday. It will be a good and worthy test run for Sen. Kaine to tackle the 2020 GOP Presidential ticket, as it looks more like that entire party is following Trump swirling down the political toilet.

As for Kaine, he goes way, way back in his statewide campaigns in Virginia having always kept Falls Church, and its iconic Eden Center of Vietnamese-Americans, in his sights. We’ve been proud to have been in the apex of critical areas of statewide support for him when he ran for lieutenant governor, governor, the U.S. Senate, now seeking re-election, and, of course, his great run on the Democratic presidential ticket with Hillary Clinton in 2016. He won all of those in Virginia and despite not taking the White House, he and Ms. Clinton garnered the highest number of votes for any candidates in the history of the U.S. in 2016, outpolling the current president by over three million.

With the news that former President Obama has been meeting with an array of prospective Democratic presidential contenders recently, we asked Sen. Kaine if, indeed, he’d met with Obama, too. “I’ve met with him a number of times since the election,” he quipped.

Having the experience of a strong vice-presidential run, Kaine is the polar opposite of all the unsavory qualities of the current president, and that’s why he is perfect to run in 2020.

No doubt there will be a very thick field of eminently qualified Democratic presidential hopefuls breaking into the race in the next months. Even though this November’s midterm elections loom, offering the best opportunity for Democrats in many years to sweep into control of both houses of the U.S. Congress, and beyond that, in 2019, when the same prospect exists for control of the State Legislature in Richmond, there is no restraining interest in the 2020 presidential election now.

With that in mind, Kaine has proven again and again that he not only has the executive skills but the passion, good heart and experience to present America with the choice of a progressive moral revival to purge our land and cleanse our palates of the grievous error that the current president represents.