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Corey Stewart: Virginia Election Was 'Rejection of the Failed Bush Wing'
Richmond Times-Dispatch ^ | 11/8/17 | Graham Moomaw

Posted on 11/08/2017 10:25:18 AM PST by leaymane

Anti-establishment firebrand Corey Stewart wasted little time Tuesday night before offering his synopsis of why Republicans lost big in Virginia's elections: They picked the wrong guy.

After watching Republican Ed Gillespie go down in defeat in the governor's race, Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and the former chairman of President Donald Trump's Virginia campaign, blasted Gillespie in a statement, saying he "refused to stand with the grassroots of the party and refused to fight ultra left wing Democrats."

"Tonight was a humiliating rejection of the failed Bush wing of the Republican Party," said Stewart, who almost upset Gillespie in the GOP primary for governor earlier this year running on a right-wing populist platform of cracking down on illegal immigrants and defending Confederate symbols.

Gillespie, a former White House aide to President George W. Bush, professed to be running on a big-tent Republican platform in his stump speeches. But after he narrowly beat Stewart in the June primary, his campaign ads took on a harder edge, emphasizing the threat of violence from Latino street gang MS-13 and accusing Democrat Ralph Northam of wanting to "tear down history" by supporting the removal of Confederate statues.

Stewart - now seeking the Republican nomination to challenge U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., in 2018 - had long said he would support the Republican ticket even though he wouldn't be leading it. But he didn't whole-heartedly endorse Gillespie, and Gillespie never campaigned with Stewart in the general election.

"We were told Virginia needed a moderate to win," Stewart said. "So we nominated one, but after listening to the swamp's consultant class, Virginia's Republicans have gone from losing by 2.5 points to 9 points. Virginians will learn from tonight, and 2018 will be a fantastic year for Republicans as we fight the left and take our country back."

With the governor's race looking close heading into Election Day, Stewart took credit for pushing Gillespie further right, which Stewart claimed boosted Gillespie's standing in the polls.

Though Stewart said Tuesday night that a fuller embrace of Trump's agenda will help lead Virginia Republicans back to victory, it's unclear how that strategy would play out in the only Southern state Trump lost last year.

Northam won Tuesday by tallying huge margins in the so-called golden crescent, the eastern population centers stretching from Northern Virginia to Richmond to Hampton Roads. Gillespie won handily in the state's less populated rural areas, but the red parts of the map simply didn't produce enough votes to counter Democratic-leaning cities and suburbs.

In Stewart's home county of Prince William, Northam won by a whopping margin of more than 20 percentage points.

David Ramadan, a former Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates who has become an outspoken Trump critic, responded to Stewart on Twitter Tuesday night by pointing out that several longtime Republican delegates from the Prince William area lost their seats in Tuesday's anti-Trump backlash.

"Enough with the shilling and further destruction of Conservatism," Ramadan said.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: bush43; coreystewart; edgillespie; election; gope; rinos; va2017; virginia
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To: COBOL2Java

Yup


21 posted on 11/08/2017 11:13:25 AM PST by EdnaMode
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To: leaymane

The “electable” candidate will lose almost every time.


22 posted on 11/08/2017 11:16:45 AM PST by TBP (Progressives lack compassion and tolerance. Their self-aggrandizement is all that matters.)
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To: C19fan

You’re correct. The dims ran the board from Gov to dogcatcher. Trump or no, the anti dims just don’t have the numbers to win Virginia anymore.

Corey Stewart has good attitude, and I support him, but I expect he’ll get slaughtered by timmy kaine in 2018.


23 posted on 11/08/2017 11:22:07 AM PST by Ceebass
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To: leaymane

The more I hear of Corey Stewart the more I think I like him.


24 posted on 11/08/2017 11:23:59 AM PST by Bigg Red (Vacate the chair! Ryan must go. Dump McConnman, too.)
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To: Professional

Seriously, in the case of Virginia, what is making that place lean Dem?

***
Answer:
1) Too many danged government swamp dwellers living there.
2) Voter fraud.


25 posted on 11/08/2017 11:25:22 AM PST by Bigg Red (Vacate the chair! Ryan must go. Dump McConnman, too.)
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To: Road Warrior ‘04
Complete repudiation of the Bushes and the GOPe’ers of the Swamp!

But will the Party leadership learn this lesson? That is unknown. Just look at some of the posts on this thread! So many saying things like "not buying it!"; "we don't need Virginia anyway"; etc.

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

26 posted on 11/08/2017 11:29:33 AM PST by COBOL2Java (John McCain treats GOP voters like he treated his first wife)
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To: Ceebass
Corey Stewart has good attitude, and I support him, but I expect he’ll get slaughtered by timmy kaine in 2018.

And who will do the slaughtering?

Answer: The Virginia GOP. Assuming that is, if they even let Corey get the nomination.

27 posted on 11/08/2017 11:31:51 AM PST by COBOL2Java (John McCain treats GOP voters like he treated his first wife)
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To: Professional

Felons can vote. NOVA has swamp and swamp supporting contractors. And NOVA’s Muslim population is growing. Also, millennials believe Socialism is the way to go.


28 posted on 11/08/2017 11:35:49 AM PST by gathersnomoss
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To: COBOL2Java

they will run ed again.


29 posted on 11/08/2017 11:36:17 AM PST by CJ Wolf (It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World)
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To: C19fan
Not buying it. The GOP got wiped out in the House of Delegates including a long time firebrand conservative in NoVa who lost to a T in LGBT. The demographic realities of the state have made the state bluer and bluer each election. The last time a GOPer won a statewide election was 2009.

Could the demographics of that district have changed so much that they went from voting for a staunch conservative like Marshall eleven times in a row to voting for a tranny? Is it possible that the down ticket folks were simply victims of the lack of enthusiasm for Gillespie? Voters focus on the governor's race. If Republican voters didn't care about Gillespie, it seems unlikely that they would have ventured out into the cold and rain just to vote for the down ballot folks even though they were good candidates.

30 posted on 11/08/2017 11:45:59 AM PST by KevinB (When you drink the water, remember the men or women who dug the well.)
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To: Bigg Red

Trump should convert his vineyard to subdivisions and move in a bunch of Republicans.


31 posted on 11/08/2017 11:47:32 AM PST by Lisbon1940 (No full-term Governors (at the time of election!)
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To: Bigg Red
Seriously, in the case of Virginia, what is making that place lean Dem?

***
Answer:
1) Too many danged government swamp dwellers living there.
2) Voter fraud.


3) Too many Republicans like Ed Gillespie.
32 posted on 11/08/2017 11:50:12 AM PST by COBOL2Java (John McCain treats GOP voters like he treated his first wife)
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To: KevinB
Could the demographics of that district have changed so much that they went from voting for a staunch conservative like Marshall eleven times in a row to voting for a tranny? Is it possible that the down ticket folks were simply victims of the lack of enthusiasm for Gillespie? Voters focus on the governor's race. If Republican voters didn't care about Gillespie, it seems unlikely that they would have ventured out into the cold and rain just to vote for the down ballot folks even though they were good candidates.

Cheap Labor Express Ed pulled it down for all Republicans in Virginia. But also it was due to a President's mid-term elections. Don't forget Reagan's mid-term election losses.

33 posted on 11/08/2017 11:52:32 AM PST by COBOL2Java (John McCain treats GOP voters like he treated his first wife)
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To: CJ Wolf
they will run ed again.

I'm sure of that. When will they ever learn?

34 posted on 11/08/2017 11:57:33 AM PST by COBOL2Java (John McCain treats GOP voters like he treated his first wife)
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To: KevinB

>Is it possible that the down ticket folks were simply victims of the lack of enthusiasm for Gillespie? <

I’m wondering if the same folks who were turned off by Gillespie weren’t turned off by this ridiculous blockade of Trump’s agenda, in particular by the Senate. So, they stayed home.

My state rep (Greg Habeeb) won with essentially a landslide. The democrat opponent got trounced.


35 posted on 11/08/2017 12:16:14 PM PST by Darnright
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To: leaymane

“Though Stewart said Tuesday night that a fuller embrace of Trump’s agenda will help lead Virginia Republicans back to victory, it’s unclear how that strategy would play out in the only Southern state Trump lost last year.”

Virginia is “Southern” to those who use it as a pejorative term rather than a geographic location.

In what sense does politics from well over a century ago have any bearing today?


36 posted on 11/08/2017 12:17:43 PM PST by unlearner (You will never come to know that which you do not know until you first know that you do not know it.)
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To: Professional

This assessment of the election from the Richmond Slimes-Pisspatch is surprisingly accurate.


37 posted on 11/08/2017 12:23:06 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: Professional

NOVA is the utopian dream and the extension of DC Swamp.


38 posted on 11/08/2017 12:24:00 PM PST by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: 103198

Fine don’t agree and SOUND LIKE AN IDIOT.


39 posted on 11/08/2017 12:24:55 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: KC_Conspirator

The top of the ticket sucked. You Bush cucks out there with your Bushie worship are so f’ed up about this. Gellispe was a Bushbot candidate. Every knew that.


40 posted on 11/08/2017 12:27:03 PM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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