On Tuesday, Corey Stewart (Virginia Chairman, Donald J. Trump for President) put out a press release calling on all candidates for statewide office in Virginia to join him in supporting Donald Trump on the campaign trail:
“I am urging all Virginia’s gubernatorial candidates to join me […] by speaking at candidate rallies, attending local Trump events, and showing support publicly. We all know what’s at stake. We have closed the gap, and we are now neck-and-neck with Hillary here in Virginia and around the country. There is no time to waste. We must put our differences aside and declare- loudly and clearly, that we are one Republican Party of Virginia, united behind Donald J. Trump and all of our candidates.”
Corey raises an excellent point: in 2017, we will elect Virginia’s next Governor. In 54 days, we will elect our nation’s next President, with Virginia’s 13 electoral votes potentially deciding the race.
We can win. Current polling indicates that Virginia is an extremely close race. The latest Emerson and Hampton University polls report a 1 and 2-point lead for Hillary, respectively – well within the margin of error. This is welcome news. As recently as August, Hillary enjoyed a 15-point lead in Virginia – a lead so impressive that her campaign decided to reallocate its advertising budget to other battlegrounds. Oops. Let’s ensure that Hillary is never able to recover.
To guarantee a win on November 8th, we must do everything we can to win over undecided voters. We cannot do so without leveraging our party’s greatest asset: the diversity of thought that has yielded four strong candidates for 2017. As you can probably imagine, I was disappointed to see Ed Gillespie refuse to accept Corey’s invitation – especially in light of Rob Wittman and Dave Brat’s appearance at the recent rally in Fredericksburg, which undoubtedly helped win over new supporters in the region.
Make no mistake: if the smoke clears on November 8th, and Virginia’s 13 electoral votes have been awarded to Hillary Clinton, we will have only our disunity to blame. Put more bluntly, with 54 days until the presidential election, we cannot afford to waste time by needlessly attacking our own. We must instead urge all of our candidates to do everything in their power to support our nominee, Donald J. Trump.
