Stewart Has State GOP in a Pickle
Repost from News Advance
If you’re a top official of the Republican Party in Virginia, you know you’ve got a problem on your hands when one of your rising political stars in the House of Representatives takes to the airwaves and demolishes the candidate at the top of the ticket less than four months before the crucial congressional midterm elections.
That’s exactly what Rep. Scott Taylor of Virginia Beach, who represents the Second Congressional District, did last week when he appeared on the John Fredericks Show, the most-listened-to conservative talk radio show in the state.
Fredericks asked Taylor, a freshman representative seeking his second term in Congress, what he thought of Corey Stewart’s chances of knocking off Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine in November. Taylor, a former U.S. Navy SEAL, was blunt: “Clearly there are some things that I don’t agree with him on and, in terms of how he campaigns, there’s no way in hell you’re going to be able to put forth a winning campaign without a different message. … Zero shot in the way the campaign was run in the primary to win the general.”
To say Stewart is controversial is an understatement. The chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, Stewart has long advocated stringent immigration policies — he’s not just against illegal immigration and rounding up undocumented immigrants, but he’s skeptical of immigration in general.
In 2017, when he sought the GOP gubernatorial nomination and almost defeated Ed Gillespie, the eventual nominee, in the party’s June primary, he wrapped himself in the flag — the Confederate flag — and embraced the issue of Confederate monuments. A red-hot topic in Charlottesville, white supremacists from across the nation staged the “Unite the Right” rally on Aug. 12, ostensibly in support of that city’s monuments to Gens. Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson that the local government had targeted for removal. Stewart publicly allied himself with one of the top leaders of the Unite the Right, Jason Kessler, even appearing with him at pro-monument events in Charlottesville in early 2017.
Stewart also was an early backer of Paul Nehlen, who’s running for the congressional seat being vacated by House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Nehlen, by the way, has shared anti-Semitic posts and memes on social media, railed against the “Jewish media” and kept a list of his Jewish “enemies” on Twitter. Stewart has since disavowed his support of Nehlen, but Nehlen’s stands have been well known since 2016.
Traditional Republican conservatives have not yet warmed to Stewart. Rep. Taylor is noncommittal about campaigning with him. The Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity has said it will not contribute any money to his campaign. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the group working to elect more Republicans to the Senate, has no plans to back Stewart.
Taylor, in the Fredericks show interview last week, had some advice for Stewart that, frankly, he should take: “[T]alk about, you know, kitchen table things, not Confederate statues. … [T]he reality is what do you think the average person cares about more his job or that? So adjust your message. Get it right to be able to exploit the vulnerabilities where Tim Kaine is weak. Very weak frankly.”
Will Stewart heed his party’s advice? Your guess is as good as anyone’s at this point in time.
Source: News Advance
Sandra Kerr
July 31, 2018 @ 8:20 pm
“Traditional” Republican =RINO =swamp dweller. You can count Taylor amongst them. We need fewer, not more.
Paul Thiel
August 15, 2018 @ 5:32 pm
Scott Taylor is truly a non-comittal middle of the road Republican! Frankly at this point I’m not sure it doesn’t help Cotey Stewart to distance himself from Taylor. He is weak where Trump is the strongest on his stance on immigration! And by the way let’s get away from the implied “Impremateur that being a former Navy Seal” makes someone extra worthy or more qualified to hold public office !
He should be verbally working and supporting anyone who wants to put an end to illegal immigration!
Let’s get educated on race-most Americans are related to or descended from the millions upon millions who came here post CIVIL WAR ! They came here from England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Poland, Greece, Italy, Africa and God knows from all over the globe. They wanted to assimilate, learn the language, wave the flag and become AMERICANS ! They didn’t own slaves or want slaves or basically “GIVE a RATS ASS” about slaves. They, for the most part could care less what the color of your skin was, whether you were brown, black, purple or pocadot ! The color of your skin had nothing to due with you being a good person ! Discrimination rarely shows it’s ugly head to good people !
Paul Thiel
August 24, 2018 @ 11:44 pm
Scott Taylor needs to put his big boy pants on ! Most of us could care less if he was a Navy Seal-what has that got to do with supporting Trump and his illegal immigration policies? Corey Stewart has stepped up and has no problem with curbing ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION and coming out in support of Trump’s outspoken lmmigration policies ! Get off the fence, speak up and as above quit bragging about the statue issue ! It is history whether you like it or not-show your nuggets and as a matter of principal very costly. I guess you have a way for all these towns to magically find the money to move these historical objects ! GET OFF THE FENCE !