A new University of Mary Washington poll in Virginia shows Sen. Tim Kaine (D) leading challenger Corey Stewart (R) by a wide margin, 49% to 30%.
Key finding: “Although 73% of Republican respondents said they’d vote for Stewart, 15% of Republicans favored Kaine — a reflection of the deep divisions among Virginia Republicans over Stewart.”
Virginia U.S. Senate candidate Corey Stewart (R) dismissed protesting NFL players as “thugs” who were “beating up their girlfriends and their wives,” CNN reports.
Said Stewart: “You know, they’ve got, you know, children all over the place that they don’t pay attention to, don’t father, with many different women, they are womanizers. These are not people that we should have our sons, or any of our children look up to. We need to have our children look up to real role models.”
A new Wilder School/VCU poll in Virginia finds Sen. Tim Kaine (D) crushing challenger Corey Stewart (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 49% to 26%, with Libertarian Matt Waters at 5% and another 20% still undecided.
Key finding: “While Virginians do not register by party, the survey found that a third of self-described Republicans or Republican-leaning voters were not yet backing Stewart — with 20% undecided, 10% supporting Waters and 3% backing Kaine.”
Virginia U.S. Senate candidate Corey Stewart (R) praised in a speech last year Virginia’s decision in 1861 to secede from the Union, putting it on par with rebellions during the American Revolution and today, CNN reports.
Said Stewart: “This is the state of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and James Monroe. It’s a state of the founders. It’s the state of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”
He added: “But it’s also the state of Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson, and J.E.B. Stuart. Because, at the base of it, Virginians, we think for ourselves. And if the established order is wrong, we rebel. We did that in the Revolution, we did it in the Civil War, and we’re doing it today. We’re doing it today because they’re trying to rob us of everything that we hold dear: our history, our heritage, our culture.”
“Corey Stewart’s Republican nomination for U.S. Senate from Virginia has prompted an identity crisis within the state GOP, with some donors and activists saying they are so turned off, they are willing to vote for his Democratic opponent, Sen. Tim Kaine,” the Washington Post reports.
“Stewart, chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, catapulted to the U.S. Senate nomination — and nearly won the gubernatorial primary last year — by celebrating guns and Confederate statues, lambasting illegal immigrants, and associating with white nationalist Jason Kessler and Paul Nehlen, a Wisconsin candidate barred from Twitter because of anti-Semitic and racist posts.”
A new Quinnipiac poll in Virginia finds Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) leading challenger Corey Stewart (R) by a wide margin, 54% to 36%.
Also interesting: “Only 32% of Virginia voters have a favorable opinion of the Republican Party, while 59% have an unfavorable opinion. The Democratic Party gets a divided 46% to 45% favorability rating.”
Said pollster Peter Brown: “Virginia, which was once a solidly red state, has made the full transition to a blue bastion. Voters in the Old Dominion are happy with the way things are going in their state and they give their statewide Democratic office-holders good approval ratings.”
Matt Lewis: “Yes, he has always had a huge ego and that machismo image that so many Trump fans exhibit, but he wasn’t always an alt-righter. I know this because, well, I used to know Corey… To be sure, he was always an immigration hawk and a hard-core Second Amendment activist, but this is all within the spectrum of mainstream conservative philosophy.”
“The fact that Stewart is now running (and winning) as a alt-righter shows that this isn’t a case of a few bad apples—this is a systemic problem. The incentives (for attention, for buzz, for winning elections) are all perverse now. What this means is that ambitious opportunists have realized that the way to win a Republican primary is to go to the dark side.”
Sen. Corey Gardner (R-CO), the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told CNN the group has no plans to endorse Corey Stewart (R), the party’s U.S. Senate nominee in Virginia.
Said Gardner: “We have a big map, right now we are focused on Florida, North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana. I don’t see Virginia in it.”
Corey Stewart (R) won the Republican nomination to face Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) in November after fighting off two challengers, the Washington Post reports.
“Stewart, who nearly won the GOP nomination for Virginia governor last year, has gained notoriety for his embrace of the Confederate flag, hard line against illegal immigrants and past association with men who consider themselves white nationalists.”
“He has promised a ‘vicious’ campaign against Kaine, who is popular in the state and is seeking a second term.”
Carly Fiorina said that she would not seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Virginia’s 2018 election, CNN reports.
Said Fiorina: “I have made a decision. I have decided that I can be of more value outside the system than a single voice among a hundred inside the system. So, I’m going to continue the work I’ve been doing for many years enlisting up leaders and problem solvers all across the country and have made the decision not to seek the US Senate seat here in the Commonwealth.”
Carly Fiorina (R) is “strongly considering” a run to unseat Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) in 2018, an adviser to the former presidential candidate told CNN.
Carly Fiorina told a local Virginia radio show that she’s considering running for the U.S. Senate seat in Virginia in 2018, CNN reports.
“The queen of conservative talk radio, Laura Ingraham, is eyeing a Senate run in Virginia and a challenge to Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA),” the Washington Examiner reports.
“Knowledgeable sources said that several party insiders have approached the media giant to run and that she is considering it.”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said he will seek re-election in 2018 but will not run for president or vice president in 2020, the AP reports.
Said Kaine: “Period. Full stop.”
If Hillary Clinton wins, and Tim Kaine becomes vice president, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) will get to appoint someone to the U.S. Senate.
Politico: “The buzz in McAuliffe land is that he can appoint a placeholder, like the 77-year-old Chuck Robb, or someone who is a longer-term option like Rep. Don Beyer, Creigh Deeds, Attorney General Mark Herring or Anne Holton, the education secretary who is also Kaine’s wife. Tom Periello, a one-term congressman who is now at the State Department, could also be an option. McAuliffe WILL NOT appoint himself, sources close to him say.”
National Journal: “When Gillespie – previously a lobbyist, Republican National Committee chair and Bush White House aide – entered the race at the start of 2014, few observers gave him much chance to win. He was positioned to be the GOP’s sacrificial lamb, and even as the race tightened in the closing weeks, many Republicans still figured Gillespie had a better shot at the governorship in 2017 than the Senate in 2014.”
“But Gillespie sensed from the start that this year’s climate would favor Republicans, and he pounded Warner incessantly as an alleged Obama clone who voted with the president nearly all the time in the Senate. Recognizing that Warner’s stint in the governor’s mansion was still fondly remembered by most Virginians, Gillespie and his fellow Republicans claimed repeatedly that ‘Governor Warner wouldn’t recognize Senator Warner today.'”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Wonk Wire, Political Job Hunt and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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