A conservative provocateur and supporter of President Donald Trump won Virginia’s Republican primary Tuesday in the U.S. Senate race, and he has promised to run a ‘ruthless’ and ‘vicious’ campaign against incumbent Tim Kaine, the Democrat who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016.
Republican Corey Stewart beat state lawmaker Nick Freitas and Chesapeake minister E.W. Jackson. Stewart – who favors keeping Confederate monuments – had long been on the fringe of the state’s GOP. Now the win makes him the standard-bearer of a deeply divided party that hasn’t won a statewide race in nearly a decade.
President Donald Trump seemed to endorse him Wednesday morning with tweeted congratulations for ‘his great victory.’
‘Now he runs against a total stiff, Tim Kaine, who is weak on crime and borders, and wants to raise your taxes through the roof,’ Trump added. ‘Don’t underestimate Corey, a major chance of winning!’
Corey Stewart, an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, won a Republican U.S. Senate primary electionin Virginia despite defending Confederate monuments
![Stewart is also an outspoken defender of Virginians' right to display and fly the Confederate battle flag, an emblem associated with the 19th-century fight to preserve the southern-U.S. institution of slavery](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/06/13/13/4D2F36D900000578-5837487-image-a-16_1528893630035.jpg)
Stewart is also an outspoken defender of Virginians’ right to display and fly the Confederate battle flag, an emblem associated with the 19th-century fight to preserve the southern-U.S. institution of slavery
![President Donald Trump appeared toendorse Stewart Wednesday, saying he has 'a great chance of winning'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/06/13/13/4D2E297A00000578-5837487-image-a-4_1528891858400.jpg)
President Donald Trump appeared toendorse Stewart Wednesday, saying he has ‘a great chance of winning’
![Trump's tweet also pegged sitting Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine,who was Hillary Clinton's running mate in 2016,' as a tax-hiking 'stiff'](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/06/13/13/4D2EBBEE00000578-5837487-image-a-12_1528892109624.jpg)
Trump’s tweet also pegged sitting Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine,who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016,’ as a tax-hiking ‘stiff’
Stewart said he plans to campaign in a Trump-like way that appeals to blue collar voters across the political spectrum.
‘We’re going to have a lot of fun between now and November, folks,’ Stewart told a raucous crowd at his victory party Tuesday evening.
The crowd chanted ‘Lock her up’ and ‘Build the wall,’ a throwback to popular chants at Trump’s campaign rallies.
Stewart’s campaign courted the Republican Party’s right wing this year by holding a raffle for donors and offering an AR-15 rifle as the prize.
A one-time state chairman of President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Stewart nearly won the 2017 Republican nomination for governor, despite being heavily outspent.
Stewart campaigned heavily on preserving Virginia’s Confederate monuments and is an immigrant hard-liner who boasts of the number of immigrants in the country illegally who have been deported from his county.
The Prince William County Board of Supervisors chairman and attorney has courted controversy throughout his political career.
![Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine will defend his seat in Virginia, trying to take advantage of Stewart's limited political experience](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1/2018/06/13/05/wire-3278600-1528862520-623_634x454.jpg)
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine will defend his seat in Virginia, trying to take advantage of Stewart’s limited political experience
![Stewart's election night party crowd chanted 'Lock her up' and 'Build the wall,' a throwback to popular chants at Trump's campaign rallies](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1/2018/06/13/05/wire-3278594-1528862514-154_634x422.jpg)
Stewart’s election night party crowd chanted ‘Lock her up’ and ‘Build the wall,’ a throwback to popular chants at Trump’s campaign rallies
![One bullet-point in Stewart's political resume this year was a raffle for donors that offered anAR-15 rifle as the prize](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/06/13/13/3B52F32400000578-5837487-One_bullet_point_in_Stewart_s_political_resume_this_year_was_a_r-m-15_1528892557323.jpg)
One bullet-point in Stewart’s political resume this year was a raffle for donors that offered anAR-15 rifle as the prize
He was fired from the Trump campaign after staging an unsanctioned protest at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, which Stewart said wasn’t sufficiently loyal to Trump during the presidential campaign.
No Democrats challenged Kaine, a former governor and 2016 vice-presidential candidate, for his party’s nomination.
Kaine spokesman Ian Sams called Stewart a ‘cruder imitation of Donald Trump who stokes white supremacy’ and would be an ’embarrassment for Virginia’ if elected.
Once a key swing state whose Senate elections drew intense national interest, this year’s race has gotten scant attention. Kaine is the early favorite to win, and the Republican primary was noteworthy for how sleepy it was.
Several higher-profile Republicans floated the possibility of running against Kaine, but they did not follow through after Democrats scored huge victories in November in state-level elections. That left establishment Republicans to rally behind Freitas, a libertarian-leaning former Green Beret and two-term state House delegate.
Stewart’s victory upset many traditional Republicans. Former Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling said on Twitter he was ‘extremely disappointed’ in Tuesday’s results.
‘Every time I think things can’t get worse they do, and there is no end in sight,’ Bolling said.
In addition to the public relations challenges provided by a candidate who some see as an alt-right magnet, Virginia Republicans risk losing House seats if moderates are alienated by Stewart and stay home in November.