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Tim Kaine Makes Campaign Stop In Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Kaine is in Minnesota Tuesday evening.

Kaine was born in St. Paul. It's his first visit to Minnesota as the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee. Student volunteers for the Hillary Clinton campaign greeted him Thursday afternoon at the University of Minnesota's Coffman Memorial Union. Kaine is holding a private fundraiser in Minneapolis later in the evening.

Hillary Clinton is battling pneumonia, but she has some high profile surrogates campaigning for her around the country. Former President Bill Clinton, President Barack Obama, and here in Minnesota, her running mate Tim Kaine.

Kaine's Minnesota visit comes 56 days before the election, in a campaign that is suddenly closer than expected. The Virginia Senator's stop at the University of Minnesota was unscheduled until earlier in the day. He spoke with students, took selfies and talked politics for almost an hour.

Kaine's visit comes 2 days after Hillary Clinton became ill and appeared to stumble into a waiting van in New York City during a 9/11 memorial service. Her campaign later revealed she's recuperating from pneumonia.

Minnesota Trump supporters, on the other hand, want to talk about something else.

"That's no way to talk about your political opposition," Deputy Chair of the Minnesota Republican Party Chris Fields said.

Trump campaign surrogates called on Kaine to apologize for Clinton's recent remarks calling half of all Trump supporters "deplorable".

"What stands out to us is the utter contempt that the Hillary Clinton campaign has shown for their political opposition," Fields said. "This is utter contempt."

The Minnesota state director of Donald Trump's campaign, Andy Post, released a statement criticizing the vice presidential candidate's visit:

"Tim Kaine's visit to Minnesota couldn't come at a worse time for him, right after Hillary Clinton's striking admission to a group of Wall Street donors that she believes half of the hardworking Americans and veterans who back Donald Trump are "deplorable" haters and racists and the other half are just too stupid to choose who they want as our next President. Minnesotans have one question for Tim Kaine on his visit here – does he agree with Hillary's insult to tens of millions of ordinary Americans?"

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