Similarities Between Joe Biden & Tim Kaine Stem From Their Roots

Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Kaine has a chance to make himself better-known at Tuesday's vice presidential debate with Republican VP candidate Mike Pence. Kaine would have some big shoes to fill as Joe Biden steps down from the position; though the latter was much more of a national name than Kaine when he ran for vice president, there are several similarities between Kaine and Biden, mostly thanks to the background they share.

Biden and Kaine both have deeply religious roots, having attended Catholic school and been raised with religious values, Politico reported. Their experience informed their politics in similar ways; both men hold, or have held, socially conservative values that at times put them in tension with their party.

Yet both have tended not to let those personal values steer their political decision-making, at least recently. In 2005, Kaine, then running for governor of Virginia, said in a radio ad: "I oppose gay marriage, I support restrictions on abortion — no public funding and parental consent — and I’ve worked to pass a state law banning partial-birth abortion." Yet he's garnered a 100 percent rating from NARAL since entering the Senate in 2012, Vox reported, since he now believes, regardless of his personal views, "that matters about reproduction and intimacy and relationships and contraception are in the personal realm." He also now supports marriage equality, according to The Wall Street Journal, a change of heart he credits to the gay and lesbian couples in his life.

SOURCE: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Biden has been vocal about his personal opposition to abortion, but, like Kaine, thinks the government doesn't have the right to make them inaccessible. In a 2012 debate, he said, "With regard to abortion, I accept my church's position on abortion ... But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews and — I just refuse to impose that on others." And he attributes his support of same-sex marriage, which he expressed in 2012, to the effects of the show Will & Grace.

Though Kaine and Biden tend to make political decisions that are socially liberal, the fact that they hold personal beliefs to the contrary informed by their religious upbringings could give them both some cross-aisle appeal to conservative voters who identify with their backgrounds.