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He’s baaackkkkk — but he never really went away.
A month, to the day, after nearly defeating Ed Gillespie, Corey Stewart — Virginia’s very own Mini Trump — is announcing his run for U.S. Senate.
Stewart’s entrance into the U.S. Senate race raises three urgent questions for Ed Gillespie:
1. Will Gillespie repudiate Corey Stewart’s toxic brand of far right politics — or will he endorse his former rival in a bid to win over the extreme fringe in his party ?
2. Will Gillespie join Corey Stewart on the campaign trail?
3. Corey Stewart just said that the“the era of the kinder, gentler Republican is over." Does Ed Gillespie agree?
Stewart’s Senate announcement comes at a politically perilous time for Gillespie and the entire Republican Party of Virginia. Throughout the GOP primary, Stewart controlled the agenda with his bombastic, neo-confederate rhetoric and pushed Gillespie far to the right.
Yet, as the Washington Post reported yesterday, Trump allies remain deeply skeptical of Gillespie.
According to the Post, White House officials and senior Republicans in the White House “are pushing him [Gillespie] to hire some of the president’s strategists and more aggressively court Trump voters.” One Republican insider even admitted that “I feel like I’m on the Titanic right now. We’re about to hit an iceberg. ‘Hey, we need to turn!’ You’ve got the current Ed Gillespie team saying, ‘Nah, hold my beer, we got this.’”
“Today is a day of reckoning for Ed Gillespie and the Republican ticket. Will Ed Gillespie finally bring Corey Stewart and Donald Trump on board?” said DPVA spokesperson Kevin Donohoe. “Virginians need to know whether the man running to be their next governor supports Corey Stewart’s extreme agenda — and if this will become the mainstream rhetoric for the Republican Party in 2017 and years to come.”
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