8 Things to Know About Anne Holton, VP Nominee Tim Kaine's Wife

From Cosmopolitan

When Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine accepted the vice presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention - giving off major dad vibes - he talked about the values of his wife, Anne Holton, and her family. "Anne's parents, Lin and Jinks, are here today, 90-plus and going strong," Kaine said. "Linwood Holton, he is still a Republican, but he is voting for an awful lot of Democrats these days ... because any party that would nominate Donald Trump for president has moved too far away from his party of Lincoln."

A. Linwood Holto Jr., Anne's father, is the former governor of Virginia, so, yes, Kaine's wife has an impressive political pedigree. But Holton has also become a powerhouse in her own right.

So who is Anne Holton? Here are eight things you should know about her:

1. She comes from a political family.

Anne's father, A. Linwood Holton Jr., was the Republican governor of Virginia from 1970 until 1974. Anne moved to the Virginia executive mansion when she was 11 years old and then again in 2006 when Tim became governor. She is now the only person to live in Virginia's executive mansion as an adult and as a child, according to Richmond.com. Tim has referred to A. Linwood Holton Jr. as his "political hero," the Boston Globe reports.

2. She met Tim at Harvard Law.

Anne and Tim met in 1981 when they were both students at Harvard Law. Tim had just returned to Harvard from a Jesuit mission in Honduras, the Boston Globe reports, when she asked him to rejoin the Prison Legal Assistance Project. She brought him homemade chocolate chip cookies during the study group. "Her side of the story is, from the day of those chocolate chip cookies, I was a goner," Tim said. "I don't remember the chocolate chip cookies, but I remember her very well."

"She picked him out," Anne's father told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Anne pointed Tim out to her father when he visited Harvard Law in the early 1980s and made it clear Tim was the one. "She lassoed him. She brought him to Virginia, and Virginia made him governor, now senator, now (potentially) vice president of the United States," A. Linwood said.

They graduated from Harvard in 1983 and married in 1984 in Richmond. Tim and Karen have three children: Nat, Woody, and Annella. Nat is a Marine, Woody is an artist, and Annella is studying to be an actress, according to the New York Times.

3. She has spent much of her life working in government.

Given her political upbringing, it's no surprise Anne has worked in government.

After graduating from Harvard, Anne became a legal aid lawyer representing low-income clients in the Richmond area, according to the Washington Post. She began to sit in as a substitute judge at Richmond's Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court when she was pregnant with her third child in 1995. At the time, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Tim's career in local politics was just beginning. In 1998, Anne got a permanent spot on the court and remained in that role until Tim was elected governor in 2005, a position he held until 2010.

When she was first lady of Virginia, Anne launched a program called "For Keeps: Families for all Virginia Teens," to identify families that could take in children from the foster care system, according to WVTF Public Radio. Her focus on children also included the education system, which led to her next political endeavor. Anne served as the secretary of education in Virginia from January 2014 to July 2016, when she stepped down to focus on Tim's campaign full-time, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

4. She played a role in the desegregation of Virginia's public schools.

When A. Linwood Holton Jr. became the governor of Virginia in 1970, a federal judge ordered the desegregation of Virginia schools, and Gov. Holton decided to send his children to Mosby Middle, a historically all-black public school in Richmond, according to the New York Times. As a result of Gov. Holton championing integration, the Holton children became symbols of integrated public schools. Anne later enrolled in Open High School, which did not give grades and let students pick their curriculum, the Times reports. Anne and Tim also decided to send their three children to Richmond public schools.

5. She has always focused on children and education.

Throughout her career, Anne has dedicated herself to children and education. "I have spent much of my working life focused on children and families at the margin, with full appreciation of the crucial role education can and must play in helping young people escape poverty and become successful adults," Anne wrote in a Washington Post op-ed.

She also detailed her work as Virginia's education secretary, focusing on the difficulty in recruiting high-quality teachers for schools in high-poverty communities, as well as the bipartisan changes she introduced to lessen the focus on multi-hour tests.

And she really loves her work. So much so that she presented a TEDx Talk on the topic. It's worth watching.

6. She's a dog person.

Much like President Barack Obama promising Malia and Sasha they'd finally get a dog once they arrived at the White House in 2009, Anne and Tim adopted their dog once Tim's gubernatorial race was over.

"We adopted our terrier, Gina, from the SPCA," Anne told Richmond Family magazine. "Actually, it's a funny story, Gina was the result of a promise to our kids that after Tim finished running for governor, we'd get a dog. Tim and I were thinking, maybe sometime the following spring, but the kids were ready the day after Election Day. So we went that Wednesday."

Anne added she grew up with dogs, so she is "a dog person."

7. She plays the violin.

Tim's musical pursuits are well-documented: He is a former tenor in the church choir and now sings at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, the church he and Anne have been attending for over 30 years, according to CNN. Tim also plays the harmonica, the New York Times reports. But he's not the only musical one in the relationship: Anne plays the violin, according to the Times, as well as dances." She dances, and I play," Tim told the New York Times. Anne's specialty, the Richmond Times-Dispatch pointed out, is both clog dancing and square dancing.

8. She's viewed as an asset to the Clinton/Kaine campaign.

At a breakfast during the Democratic National Convention, Tim told Virginia delegates Anne is "my political partner, my most astute critic, my most energetic enthusiast," the New York Times reports. Anne's extensive background in policy, specifically education and children, and lifelong work in the public sector, is seen as an asset to the Clinton and Kaine campaign. When Hillary Clinton announced Tim as her running mate, she also praised Anne's work in Virginia, according to the Washington Post. Anne has even been mentioned as a potential replacement to fill her husband's Senate seat should he and Hillary win the election, the New York Times reports.

Follow Maggie on Twitter.