Posted on 06/16/2018 8:04:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
MAGA candidates were big winners on the June 12th primary, a continuing referendum from working, law-abiding Americans who want their elected representatives to put Americans First. Candidates who strayed from Trumps agenda or spent more time attacking than working toward the presidents goals, they faced a reckoning. Mark Sanford of South Carolina was the most notable example.
Virginias U.S. Senate GOP primary was also contentious and the most revealing about the populist trend redefining the Republican Party. Its bad enough to have a left-wing Sandinista type like Tim Kaine serving as Virginias junior senator. Its worse that Virginias Republican Party pundit class seem more interest in accommodating rather than confronting the culture wars head on.
The Liberty Caucus/Koch Brothers/Establishment pick was state senator Nick Freitas. He gave a stirring speech on the floor of the Virginia State Senate which went viral. He has a solid but scant conservative voting record. Corey Stewart is the four-term Chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. He represents a county which is majority-minority, the second-most populous compared to Fairfax County, which some have likened to Los Angeles County: congested, cosmopolitan, and heavily Democratic. Stewart not only pushed for his county to oppose illegal immigration, but to remove all illegal aliens from the region. He proudly implemented the 287(g) program to deputize county police to help with immigration enforcement.
Stewart has also been a committed conservative activist. He demanded the Virginia GOP leadership resign following their terrible losses in 2017. He protested the Fairfax County Sheriffs decision to end its 287(g) programs. He recently railed against Virginia General Assembly Republicans for voting for the Obamacare Medicaid Expansion! Oh, and he also ran Virginias Trump campaign.
Despite all this, the Virginia political establishment doesnt like him.
Stewart has also been a committed conservative activist. He demanded the Virginia GOP leadership resign following their terrible losses in 2017. He protested the Fairfax County Sheriffs decision to end its 287(g) programs. He recently railed against Virginia General Assembly Republicans for voting for the Obamacare Medicaid Expansion! Oh, and he also ran Virginias Trump campaign.
Despite all this, the Virginia political establishment doesnt like him.
Stewarts critics have connected him with an anti-Semite. This allegation stems from his former friendship with populist outsider Paul Nehlen, who ran a primary challenge against Speaker of the House Paul Ryan by going after the Trans-Pacific Partnership. During his second bid against Ryan, Nehlens comments veered from fiery populism to violence and anti-Semitism. Breitbart News and Corey Stewart disavowed the man. Case closed.
Critics also slam Stewarts brief association (if any) with the Unite the Right Rally organizer in Charlottesville. Like Trump, Stewart has condemned white supremacy, including on the Left, and he denounced the violence, which erupted on both sides, including Antifa. The media chose to ignore the violence on the Left. Nevertheless, Stewart has sparred valiantly against this bias many times, especially on CNN. Check out his victory lap on the segment, too.
Stewarts opponents played the alt-right and the race card up until Primary Day, and Stewart carried the nomination. Yes, it was close, with Pastor E. W. Jackson taking 12 percent of the vote, too. Pastor Jacksons views are as conservative as Stewarts, so one can surmise that they will gravitate toward Stewart in the general election.
The attacks from the media, left and right, against Corey Stewart sound a lot like Trump Derangement Syndrome. One Fox Newscaster at the outset described him as the guy who wanted to protect the Confederate statues throughout Virginia. Does this make Stewart that controversial? In 2017, Democrat Ralph Northam stopped campaigning against the removal of the statues, and even Ed Gillespie talked about preserving Virginias heritage.
Stewart is not a blackguard but the vanguard candidate which Virginia Republicans need to support. The state has gone from purple to blue since since the mid-2000s. From the DC Swamp to the biased left-wing media, plus mass migration, Virginia is not the ruby-red paradise it used to be.
Instead of rejecting the GOP Establishment playbook of focusing on general income issues and running an inclusive campaign, Virginias conservative political class needs to confront the hard-left policies implemented by the growing Democratic cohort. Illegal immigration is ruining the Old Dominion, and a new class of Republicans like Stewart are tackling the issue head-on.
Is that a political playbook for failure?
Stewarts primary victory includes precincts in Northern Virginia, which had been dragging the state down. He has voiced the concerns of middle-income families have been feeling the economic pinch. He champions the small businesses are competing with illegal aliens--both workers and employers!-- who dont play by the rules. He openly embraces President Trumps record and rhetoric. Like the President, Stewart is a fighter who will wage a vicious campaign to brand Tim Kaine as a corporate stiff, a Hillarybot who will sell the country to the lowest bidder. At this victory party, Stewart chanted with stalwarts Lock Her Up!
The Establishment backed Freitas because he was not Corey, with a storied military career and the backing of diverse interest groups. He still lost, though, since Stewart had a strong political machine from his chairmanship on Trump campaign in 2016 and his failed gubernatorial bid the next year. But for some fake polls which suggested that he didnt have a chance, Stewart would have been the nominee. He lost that race by only one percentage point. He won the U.S. Senate primary by the same margin. Poetic justice, perhaps.
Or not. The anti-Trump GOP establishment (The Weekly Standards Bill Kristol, former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling, among others) would rather lose than back their candidate. Should their arrogant diffidence worry the Stewart campaign or the GOPs chances to defeat Tim Kaine? The same Beltway Bevy of newsstand conservatives rejected Trumpand hes our President. Previous statewide candidates ignored illegal immigration (Cuccinelli) or stayed away from the President (Ed Gillespie), and they lost. Who cares what yesterdays men have to say?
Republican voters have rejected the corporatist, globalist Bush-Boehner brand of Republicanism. They want Trumplicanism, an America First political party which looks out for the little guy, the suburban family, the working-class blue-collar man, and the minority voters who want to enjoy the American Dream as Americans. Stewart supports those values, and Virginians should support, or prepare for the Old Dominion to become the Democratic Domination.
The Republican establishment will undercut the Stewart campaign and support Kaine. Kaine will win. They clearly are not representing our best interests and we should turn our backs on these Democrat wannabes.
If this race against Tim Kaine is even close on election night we would be looking at a massive red wave nationwide with other Senate seats in play that weren’t even on the radar besides this one.
2016 results:
Hillary Clinton 49.73% 1,981,473
Donald Trump 44.41% 1,769,443
That’s a real positive attitude.
“The Republican establishment will undercut the Stewart campaign and support Kaine. Kaine will win.”
Did you also say this?
The Republican establishment will undercut the Trump campaign and support Hillary. Hillary will win.
Actually it is corporate crony mercantilism. These corporations are quite happy to use the mercantilist policies of the rest of the world, places that don't practice or believe in "free trade" to hollow out and undermine American strength and productivity.
The behavior of the Republican establishment is not helpful and I am fed up with those bozos. Reagan avoided any criticism of Republicans. Now the establishment is trying to overthrow the Republican President and any of his supporters. This is self serving.
Good article by Arthur Schaper. Thanks for posting. HOORAY Corey Stewart.
No, I didn’t. Someone else beat me to it. The facts, of course, are that the Republican establishment did help Hillary, attacked Trump, and voted for the Democrats. The Never Trumpers are still part of the Resistance. Fortunately, the voters, many of them Democrats, figured out what was going on and we won. May not be that lucky in 2018 and 2020.
it’ll never work
We'll see who wins. It is Virginia after all.
When the two debate, Stewart needs to pointedly remind everyone of his denouncing of Nehlen and white supremacy. Then he needs to turn to Kaine and ask him directly why he hasnt publicly denounced his sons association with ANTIFA.
Lots of drivel in the last paragraph.
It is just ignorant to not realize the Trump objectives are to increase the sales of American companies where ever in the world their products are desired
Hillary did win - in Virginia, which is what is saying.
The Virginia Republican establishment is solely responsible for the demise of Virginia into a blue state.
I think a lot of the Virginia Republican establishment is still run by the old Democrats who crossed over to the Republican party in the 90s when they saw the writing on the wall. They changed their party affiliation but not their beliefs or actions and still maintain control over the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates.
They still maintain too much influence to this day and now see the opportunity to eviscerate the Virginia GOP and turn back to the Democrat party.
Trump winning in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania was a far bigger task than a solid conservative winning a seat in Virginia.
The VA establishment can be fought. Remember Eric Cantor? It takes confidence and hard work. A defeatist attitude will not do it.
The GOPe will stab the conservative candidate in the back.
“The VA establishment can be fought. Remember Eric Cantor? It takes confidence and hard work. A defeatist attitude will not do it.”
You can beat the establishment GOP in primaries.
You can’t beat the democrats in the general elections when the GOP establishment lines up with those same democrats, which is what they did when they could not beat a true conservative in the primaries, like what hey did to Cuccinelli, North, two attorney general candidates.
Brat won the general only because he was in a safe conservative district. Statewide, it’s the spiteful GOP elites who will kill any conservative because you need every GOP vote to beat the democrats and their 500,000 illegal voters (illegal aliens, green card aliens, felons.
The GOP establishment in Virginia is very comfortable with democrats.
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