Stacy Shaw
Corey Stewart from his Senate campaign website.
Prince William County's Corey Stewart won the Republican nomination, Tuesday night. He will go on to challenge Democratic Senator Tim Kaine to represent Virginia in the U.S. Senate. Stewart won by a very close margin with 44.85% of the vote. Challenger Nick Freitas's 43.08%. E.W. Jackson came in a distant third. Corey Stewart, an attorney, is Chairman At-Large of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, representing the second largest county in the Commonwealth. Stewart has been chairman since 2007 and has seen the county during a time of recession and also of rapid population growth. Stewart gained notoriety when he ran as a gubernatorial primary candidate in 2017. Although he lost the nomination, he came within 1.2% of establishment Republican Ed Gillespie, surpassing expectations. Stewart carried mostly rural districts though living in Northern Virginia. Stewart served as former Virginia Chairman of the Trump Presidential Campaign in 2016 before being fired late in the race, but Stewart blames that on the traditionalism of the establishment Republicans in Virginia. Stewart still ran on being a tremendous supporter of the president. He often says he was "Trump before Trump was Trump." The Chairman seems to amp up his brash and controversial rhetoric when he campaigns. Upon announcing his run, Stewart promised to run a "vicious" race against Senator Kaine. More controversial statements can be found on his
Twitter page. At the dais, as Chairman, he is less divisive and does not strictly vote along partisan lines. He is not even one of the most fiscally conservative of the members. Nor did he advertise any extreme stances when running for reelection in 2015. However, Stewart has displayed his conservative chops while governing in Prince William. Stewart created a strict anti-illegal immigration policy in Prince William County during the Bush administration, and continued to make Prince William County hand criminal illegal immigrants over to ICE. Stewart was a divisive candidate among Republicans because of his close ties to Trump, his brazen - often what one would call uncivil- rhetoric, and also because of his sometimes support for more extreme conservatives. After the Charlottesville riots last summer, when other were condemning white nationalists, Stewart said Republicans could not apologize fast enough, a position that made them weak. He gained national media attention for such statements. Stewart has also posed for photos with the Confederate flag and called Virginia Republicans that would not stand against Obamacare "flaccid." Stewart will have a tough race against Tim Kaine, who reached the height of his popularity running for Vice President of the United States in 2016 with Hillary Clinton. Clinton won the State of Virginia, and Democrats have faired well in Virginia elections since. Many refer to the "blue wave" as a referendum on President Trump. Corey Stewart is a native of Duluth, Minnesota.
Overall results: | Corey A. Stewart Republican | 134,606 | 44.85% |
| Nick J. Freitas Republican | 129,290 | 43.08% |
| E. W. Jackson Republican | 36,238 | 12.07% |
Corey Stewart also carried his home county of
Prince William although there was a low turnout overall.
Prince William County results: | Corey A. Stewart Republican | 9,391 | 56.42% |
| Nick J. Freitas Republican | 5,526 | 33.20% |
| E. W. Jackson Republican | 1,727 | 10.38% |
Last Modified on 06/13/2018 11:41 AM
Updated by Bristow Beat June 13 at 12:35 p.m.
Other Candidates: Nick Freitas: Virginia Delegate of the 30
th District, Freitas is a “constitutional conservative.” He served two combat tours as a Green Beret in the Middle East, then became Director of Operations for a service-disabled, veteran-owned defense contractor. He has a 100% rating with the NRA. He resides in Culpeper. E.W. Jackson describes himself as a man of faith who grew up in a working-class family. He is a Vietnam Era Veteran and joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1970. He attended Harvard Law School and also became a Baptist minister in Boston. He also went on to practice law and teach at Northern University and Strayer University.
