Former Virginia governor and U.S. Senate candidate Tim Kaine, a Democrat who turns 54 next week, met with business owners and leaders at the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce office in Lansdowne on Wednesday and zeroed in on the his belief in the importance of “talent.”

“It’s something I’m really passionate about,” he said, explaining that Virginia has climbed in his lifetime to 38th in per capita income to its current position around No. 7. “It’s a Virginia lesson, frankly. No state has moved as far as Virginia, from sluggish to vibrant.”

Despite a low-tax, low-regulation environment, Virginia was still poor 50 years ago, he said. But then a greater focus on education ushered the state toward prosperity, Kaine said.

“The thing that I think has been the most important for Virginia … if you embrace talent … you’ll be strong,” he said.

Anecdotally, Kaine said that during his governorship major businesses moved their headquarters to Virginia, including Hilton, Volkswagen and Northrop Grumman, despite the fact the state faced its worst recession since the Great Depression.

“They all moved their headquarters to Virginia in the midst of the worst recession in 70 years,” he said. “The reason they said they moved to Virginia is they like the talent.”

Without a highly educated workforce, for example, long-term prosperity may be difficult for some competitor states, he said.

Kaine said the nation could learn a lesson from Virginia about the need for highly qualified people, whether the training is in traditional higher education or career and vocational in nature.

“There is nothing that we can do that will be enough if we don’t get the talent,” he said of putting the country back on solid fiscal ground. The immigration debate plays into his philosophy, he said, because a significant number of the talented people he’s looking for now live in other countries.

It’s part his concern about immigration policies could hamper progress.

“We went to be the most talented nation on Earth,” he said, rather than asking how high to build a wall.

Kaine said he’s also concerned about inequity in the tax system — a key topic in the presidential election — and tried to give business people in the room an idea of the imbalance he sees.

“There probably a lot of people in this room who pay federal taxes,” he said. “GE doesn’t.”

Part of the solution is to improve the tax code by lowering rates and eliminating tax breaks.

When asked about energy and rising cost of gasoline, Kaine said that automobile technology has made a significant impact on the amount of gas needed, amounting to something of a wash. He said the nation’s energy must be diverse, and less reliant on gas.

“I would take tax subsidies and breaks away from oil and gas,” he said, adding that he would apply the revenue to “alternative energy needs.’’

Kaine is running for the seat Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., will leave after a single term. Kaine faces other Democratic candidates, including Fairfax entrepreneur Courtney Lynch and Julien Modica, president of Veteran Healthcare Inc.

Webb unseated Republican George Allen in the last election. Allen is the favored GOP candidate again this year, but faces competition from state Del. Bob Marshall, R-Manassas; David McCormick, an attorney from the Hampton Roads; Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation co-founder Jamie Radtke; and Bishop E.W. Jackson, founder of Exodus Faith Ministries in Chesapeake.

At the end of the roundtable meeting, Tony Howard, president and CEO of the Loudoun Chamber, prodded the candidate about whether to have a debate with the Northern Virginia business chambers, to which Kaine appeared to give an uncommitted smile.

In 2005, Tim Russert, who has since died, moderated a debate before regional business leaders in which former Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore responded to a hypothetical question immediately after declining to answer a different question because it was hypothetical. The crowd was silenced by the maneuver and Kaine ultimately won the gubernatorial election.