As I pointed out in my last installment, Corey Stewart is a charlatan and a habitual liar who, when he’s not busy selling conservatives in Prince William County down the river, is instead trying to convince them to back him in whatever new vanity project he’s undertaking at the time, whether it’s a run for Lt. Governor, Governor, or US Senate.
I also mentioned there’s so much source material to work with when it comes to shining the light on the political chameleon that is Corey Stewart that I had to break things up by topic. I’d like to take this opportunity to examine probably one of the most bogus arguments I’ve long waited to tackle: The myth that Corey Stewart could actually win in a general election in Virginia.
Stewart’s camp relies on 3 arguments that he is electable:
1) “Corey Stewart is the ONLY candidate who has won 4 elections in Northern Virginia”
2) “Corey Stewart will turn out Trump voters from 2016”
3) “Corey Stewart is the ONLY candidate with the name ID to win”
Almost every talking-point I’ve seen from the Stewart campaign, his surrogates, and the candidate himself, revolves around some variation of these three points. So, true to the precedent I set earlier (and judging by the snowflake meltdown that came from Stewart’s surrogates and paid staffers in the comments section of my article, it certainly managed to rattle their nerves), it’s time to “ruthlessly” deconstruct these arguments one by one.
1) “Corey Stewart is the ONLY candidate who has won 4 elections in Northern Virginia”
You know what Corey Stewart is also the only candidate to do? Lose two consecutive nomination contests for statewide office.
At this point, Stewart has become a perennial candidate who constantly tries to come up with a new trick to fool primary voters or convention delegates into thinking that he won’t betray them the moment he gets elected. Looking at his resume for the past few cycles, it’s amazing how a “strong leader and winner“ such as himself can consistently lose. Since 2012, he has won exactly 1 campaign, bailed on another one, and lost twice. His 1-2-1 record doesn’t exactly scream “winner”. His record the last 6 years looks more like the opening weeks of a Cleveland Browns season. (If you count his time with the Trump campaign in 2016 as another campaign of his, I’m not sure what the record would stand at. (Does getting fired count as a loss?)
One has to wonder how many statewide campaigns Corey Stewart is going to run until he becomes the Harold Stassen of Virginia? (Who, like Stewart, was also from Minnesota ironically enough.)
Let me just come out and say it: Corey Stewart is a loser. Last year, Stewart lost to the man who lost so badly that you have to go back over 30 years to find a worse performance for a Republican running for Governor in Virginia.
“But Corey almost beat Ed!” I can already hear from the cesspool over at Virginia Freedom Caucus.
I wasn’t aware Stewart was looking to “almost” become a US Senator? Last time I checked, “Almost Beat Ed” isn’t exactly something you want to put on your political resume.
“But Corey was outspent 7-1!”
I’m sorry, was his name printed on our ballots last November? No? Then who cares? He lost the 2017 primary and it honestly doesn’t matter how much money he or the Gillespie campaign spent in the process of him losing. (Though Stewart’s poor fundraising numbers only further reinforces the argument that he is a weak primary and general election candidate). More importantly, the Republican nominee for US Senate will likely be outspent by around 7-1 in the general by Tim Kaine’s campaign anyway. Corey’s surrogates aren’t helping themselves by pointing out their candidate can’t even get out of our own party’s nomination contests.
Are we honestly supposed to believe that the man who came in 3rd place at the convention in 2013 is going to make a credible general election challenger to Tim Kaine, one of the most well-organized, well-funded, and well-disciplined elected officials in Virginia? (A set of qualities which Corey is sorely lacking in, mind you).
Of course, all of this is easy pickings, so let’s examine the hard numbers, specifically his latest election in Prince William County, which is central to the claim that Stewart can compete in Northern Virginia.
In 2015, the last year he was elected Chair of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, Corey Stewart defeated Democrat Rick Smith 56.78% – 42.75%. Pretty impressive, right?
Not when you look at the data.
Corey Stewart managed to win only 37,853 votes in his “crushing” defeat of Smith. This, in a county with over 463,000 residents. Pathetically low turnout in an off-off-year election in Virginia allowed Stewart to win. Even in this regard, Stewart’s victory seems rather shallow.
Congratulations Corey, you managed to win as many votes as Senator Bill Carrico did in 2015, despite representing a district with well over twice as many people as his.
The bottom line is, if Corey Stewart couldn’t even defeat E.W. Jackson at a convention or Ed Gillespie in a primary, what is the Stewart campaign smoking to make them believe he can honestly compete in Northern Virginia? Outside of Prince William County, Manassas, and Manassas Park, Stewart lost every locality in Northern Virginia to Ed Gillespie in the 2017 primary. That doesn’t scream “I can win NOVA!”, instead that signals not even Republicans in the region particularly enjoy him, much less independents. How in the world can he compete in NOVA if he can’t even win over the Republicans that live up there?
When Stewart recently spoke in Arlington County Republican Committee in late March, he decided to lay out his grand plan for winning against Tim Kaine. Here it is ladies and gentlemen.
I’d sooner trust a doctor performing open-heart surgery on me while wearing snow gloves than I would trust Corey Stewart in any situation that “requires a lot of diplomacy”. Peeling off independents, moderates, and centrists is the winning formula for every campaign that has been run since Thomas Jefferson beat John Adams in 1800. Leave it to the Stewart campaign to reinvent the wheel and then declare only they hold the solutions to the problems that have plagued Virginia Republicans for so many years. I suppose next we’ll hear from Team Corey that yard signs are what decides elections. So let me get this straight…Corey Stewart is going to do what literally every politician does in order to win an election? Stop the presses folks! That’s some real innovative stuff we’ve got going on here!
What’s more, the inner-political coward and chameleon that is Corey Stewart once again shows itself. Stewart telegraphed his intentions of using conservatives in Virginia like useful idiots. His plan is to court the right in the primary and then court the left in the general? Stewart can’t even solidify support from Virginia Republicans in the primary as it is due to his horrible record and cartoonish behavior. His definition of courting the right is to grandstand in Charlottesville with Jason Kessler and then proceed to call Kessler’s despicable band of racists and National Socialists “the right” at the latest GOP Senate debate in Charlottesville of all places.
Newsflash to the Stewart campaign: The Charlottesville Rally in 2017 wasn’t a good thing, and it certainly doesn’t help for you to try and equate these folks,
To these folks,
Good luck playing political musical chairs in the general. Even worse, Moderates and Independents already hate Stewart (as we will explore below). If the key to winning in 2018 is “diplomacy”, I would submit to you that Corey Stewart would be about as useless in accomplishing that task as any one man can be.
The truth of course is that Corey Stewart’s campaign knows they can’t win Virginia, much less Northern Virginia. But that’s OK! They’ve got a better Trump card (pun intended) to play!
2) “Corey Stewart Will Turn Out Trump Voters From 2016”
I remember attending an event where Stewart spoke to a Republican group a few months ago. Someone in the crowd asked him what his plan to defeat Senator Kaine in the general was. His response was “I will win this election by turning out everyone who voted for Donald Trump in 2016!”
I wanted to reply, “Just like you did in the 2017 primary, right? You’re gonna turn out all 1,769,443 people who voted for Trump?”
Give me a break.
How the hell is Corey Stewart going to turn out the people who voted for President Trump in 2016 if he can’t even turn out more than 8% of them in 2017?
This sort of argument is so devoid of logic or reason that it’s no wonder the Stewart camp uses it, considering his entire campaign is built around rejecting logic and reason at every turn.
And since we’re on the subject, has anyone actually told the Stewart campaign yet that Donald Trump lost Virginia in 2016? As someone who proudly voted for President Trump in 2016, and is very happy with the fact that Hillary Clinton is #NotMyPresident, I think it’s hilarious that Corey Stewart thinks that just trying to be a smaller, less well-known, less financially-successful version of Donald Trump is going to make him the next Senator from Virginia.
All of Stewart’s talk about his ability to turn out Trump’s base is just that…talk. He has utterly failed at every turn to even come remotely close to replicating President Trump’s coalition in Virginia. Could it be because he was fired like a dog by the Trump campaign after working to screw them over right before the election? Trump’s top operatives in Virginia, have openly voiced their disgust with Corey Stewart in the past, calling him a “Net negative” to the President’s efforts in Virginia.
Let’s dig deeper. How many dollars did Stewart have to spend in order to win each of his votes in 2015? The Stewart campaign spent $1,048,873 in order to win 37,853 votes. The Stewart campaign spent $27.70 per vote in Prince William County. That means Stewart had to spend $13 more per/vote than Hillary Clinton did in the 2016 primaries.
That’s a pathetic ratio. Stewart struggles to turn out voters even in his home county of Prince William, while blowing over a million dollars and running against a weak Democrat.
If you’re looking for more information on how poor Corey is as a candidate, Ed Gillespie has won more votes in Prince William County than Corey Stewart ever has. Even in defeat, Gillespie still bests Stewart. Gillespie received 46,454 votes in the county in 2016, and 45,366 votes in 2014. Those numbers are almost 10,000 more votes than Stewart received the last time he won re-election as Chair of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. Not only can Stewart not beat Ed in a primary, he can’t even beat Ed’s numbers in his home county even while Stewart is winning re-election in a supposed landslide.
For all the bombastic over-the-top nonsense emanating from Stewart’s mouth wherever he goes, the only folks he seems to have an easy time turning out to vote are Democrats, as evidenced by his tanking of the Trump campaign in 2016. Of course, spending all this time gallivanting across Virginia on a glorified self-promotion tour while pretending to be helping the President carry Virginia has naturally led to many people having the unfortunate experience of getting to know Corey Stewart, which leads us to our third and final point.
3) “Corey Stewart is the ONLY candidate with the Name ID to win”
The best claim to fame Corey Stewart can come up with is that he was fired by Donald Trump in-between losing two consecutive statewide nomination contests, one against E.W. Jackson, and the other against Ed Gillespie. For all the talk of “muh name ID” coming from Stewart’s campaign, 2/3 Republican primary voters don’t even know who the hell he is.
Someone also needs to tell the Stewart camp that being known for losing to Ed Gillespie isn’t exactly an endearing trait to have.
Perhaps more importantly, high name ID is no good if people hate you.
Corey Stewart is easily the most polarizing figure in Virginia politics, and contrary to popular belief from the Stewart campaign, making people hate you does not earn their vote. The Stewart campaign has decided on a bold strategy of subtraction and division in their quest to secure the nomination and unseat Tim Kaine. From the Charlottesville disaster to making a fool of himself outside the Virginia state capitol, Stewart seeks bad publicity like a failing Hollywood actor seeks crack cocaine. He’s addicted to making a mockery of his party and himself in public. In the aim of constantly keeping his name in the spotlight, he resorts to routinely humiliating himself in-front of the cameras, earning him applause from few beyond those who are paid by him.
Corey Stewart is a caricature of everything Democrats like to claim we Republicans are. Light on policy, soft on principles, loud, noisy, and generally unpleasant and irritating. Stewart has a gift for writing Democratic ads against him. It doesn’t take more than a 5-minute stay over at Blue Virginia to see Tim Kaine ads against Stewart that literally use his own words against him.
If Corey Stewart gets the nomination, Tim Kaine will run an ad with three stills.
This, (Jason Kessler)
Followed by this,
and finally this,
Any questions?
The election will have been decided by that point, and Corey Stewart will lose in a landslide.
The truth is, there are really only three types of people who believe that Corey Stewart could even come within 10 points of Tim Kaine, much less actually compete with him in the general:
1) Staffers who are paid to believe the naked emperor has clothes.
2) Stewart’s inner circle who drank so much of the Corey Kool-Aid to the point that they actually believe their own BS.
3) People who have been fed lies by Stewart and those around him who stand to profit from another crash-and-burn campaign from the Prince William politician (and these folks are rapidly waking up to the reality that Corey Stewart is a liar, a loser, and a leech).
Corey Stewart is a lot like Nickelback music. They’re both awful and belong in the past, and yet there’s some who think that it will eventually catch on if only they keep bringing it back up.
