State and National Government
Photo: Corey Stewart Facebook
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Conservative provocateur Corey Stewart started his U.S. Senate bid last year as a longshot, promising to run a “vicious” and “ruthless” crusade against Democratic incumbent Tim Kaine in a style similar to President Donald Trump.
With just days to go until Election Day, there’s little sign those Trump-like tactics — including personal attacks on Kaine and his son — have found purchase in increasingly blue Virginia.
Stewart is down in most polls, starved for cash and shunned by fellow GOP congressional candidates. Republicans openly worry Stewart will hurt down-ballot candidates facing stiff competition in several Virginia congressional districts as Democrats try to take control of the U.S. House.
“Without a lot of top-of-the-ticket support, these congressional candidates have really got to grind it out,” former White House adviser Steve Bannon recently told a local talk radio host.
Stewart’s devotion to Trump has gotten little in return from the White House. Vice President Mike Pence recently campaigned for a little-known, longshot Virginia congressional candidate in a heavily Democratic district, but has done no events with Stewart.
On top of it all, Stewart said he recently lost a major client at his international trade law firm because of the campaign.
“I’ve lost a lot of money because of this,” Stewart said in an interview, adding he’ll be facing “some painful years” if he loses.
Stewart declined to name the client or the reason why the client left, but the immigration hardliner and outspoken advocate of Confederate imagery has been a magnet for controversy.
Critics have routinely labeled Stewart, who also chairs the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, an opportunist trying to use racial discord for political gain. His main Republican primary opponent accused him of “dog-whistling” to win support from white supremacists, anti-Semites and racists. Stewart has had to disavow past associates, including Jason Kessler, the major organizer of last year’s violent protests in Charlottesville.
“This is an individual who is a lawyer, and a Georgetown grad, he knows who these people are, he knows what they stand for,” Kaine said of Stewart at a debate.
Kaine’s campaign message centers on fostering a “Virginia that works for all.”
A former governor and lieutenant governor seeking a second Senate term, Kaine has never lost a statewide election in Virginia. But having been Hillary Clinton’s running mate in 2016, he’s keenly aware of the threat of an upset. Kaine has kept a full campaign schedule and amassed a war chest 10 times the size of Stewart’s. Kaine has used the money to blanket the state with ads, while Stewart only recently started limited circulation of television ads.
Kaine has frequently campaigned with Democratic congressional candidates, spending much of the past week supporting Democrats in deep-red, rural districts.
On Monday, he did three events with Jennifer Lewis, a Democrat running in a western Virginia district that Trump won by about 25 percentage points. She said Kaine was the first person to call her when she won her primary, and has given helpful advice since.
“When he shows up, it definitely increases the crowd for sure,” Lewis said.
Stewart says he’s not bothered that other Republicans aren’t campaigning with him, and he insists the polls are wrong.
“I’m all in, there’s nothing to go back to,” Stewart said. “I mean, I’m all in, I’ve got to win … My life is forever changed with this race.”
Stewart was in good spirits after a Virginia Deer Hunters Association banquet outside Richmond recently. As rifles, crossbows and paintings of Trump and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee were auctioned, Stewart was peppered with encouragement while he walked table-to-table, shaking hands and posing for photos.
“Don’t back down, buddy,” one woman yelled.
“We are rooting for you, yes we are,” another woman said.
Some praised Stewart as a principled candidate who isn’t afraid of controversial stances. Others praised his support of Trump and said they felt good about Stewart’s chances.
“I believe it’s neck and neck,” said Al Wilder, an Army veteran from Chesterfield.
Stewart said the warm reception shows his campaign’s hidden momentum that polls don’t capture.
But the crowd of 1,000 mostly white hunters represents a shrinking slice of the Old Dominion. Demographic changes have helped make Virginia a reliable win for Democrats. No Republican has won a statewide office in nearly a decade.
Stewart is finishing with a “Jobs, Not Mobs” tour around Virginia, and he still hopes the president may join him.
“We’re hoping he’s going to be here, but look, he’s got a whole country to run,” Stewart said.
Republican 8th District House of Delegates candidate Joe McNamara says one of his top priorities if he gets elected on Tuesday would be giving any unused money back to taxpayers. WFIR’s Ian Price has more:
Photo: Flacc4Congress Facebook
Democrat Anthony Flaccavento is trying for a second time to unseat Republican Morgan Griffith in the 9th Congressional District. He got less than 40% the first time around, but he says there is a lot that is different this time. For starters, he says, Griffith now has an eight-year record, and it is not a good one. Flaccavento has outraised Griffith in recent months and hopes the voting numbers will follow the same trend. WFIR’s Evan Jones has our campaign profile:
Photo by Laura Elizabeth Pohl, courtesy of Bread for the World
Congressman Morgan Griffith’s claim that the GOP tax cuts are working for businesses is being disputed by his Democratic challenger in next week’s election. WFIR’s Ian Price has more:
The full interview with Anthony Flaccavento can be heard below
We are a week away from election day – when the Congressional seat being vacated by Bob Goodlatte will be decided. More on the Democratic contender, Jennifer Lewis, in a GOP-leaning 6th district from WFIR’s Gene Marrano:
Ahead of next week’s mid-term elections, polling shows voters consider the Affordable Care Act’s protections for people with preexisting conditions to be very important. WFIR’s Ian Price has more:
You can hear our full interview with Democratic 6th Congressional District candidate Jennifer Lewis below:
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The University of Virginia on Friday said it banned 10 white nationalists for their actions during a torch-lit campus demonstration that turned violent last year.
The no-trespass warnings were issued to people law enforcement identified “as either committing or conspiring with others to carry out acts of violence or other conduct that directly threatened the health and safety of members of the community and other people on Grounds,” Assistant Vice President and Chief of Police Tommye S. Sutton said in a prepared statement.
Sutton said the university drew a distinction between free speech and “conduct that is aimed to intimidate others and promote violence.”
“Such conduct and intimidation will not be tolerated,” he said.
Richard Spencer, a 2001 UVA graduate who helped organize the march on Aug. 11, 2017, is one of the 10 people now banned from campus.
UVA said that after the march, Spencer issued statements in which he acknowledged he was part of a group that surrounded counterprotesters and “wouldn’t let (them) out.”
“His words and actions at and after the rally provide evidence of his involvement in a conspiracy to commit acts of violence … ,” the university’s statement said.
Hundreds of white nationalists descended on Charlottesville Aug. 11-12, 2017, in part to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
Spencer said he did not engage in violence on Aug. 11 or the next day, when more fighting broke out between white nationalists and counterprotesters. A woman was killed when a car allegedly driven by a man authorities say was fascinated by Adolph Hitler plowed into a crowd of counterprotesters.
“The fact is all of my appearances at UVA in 2017 were done peacefully, and I came in peace every time,” Spencer told The Associated Press on Friday.
“We came to exercise our First Amendment right, and that includes speech, but it also includes to freely assemble in public places.”
Spencer said he does not plan to disobey the no-trespass warning.
Included in the no-trespass warnings issued Friday are four California men charged earlier this month with violently attacking counterprotesters in Charlottesville. Prosecutors said the men are members of the Rise Above Movement, a militant white supremacist group.
Jason Kessler, another rally organizer and UVA alumnus, was issued a no-trespass warning in April.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A man in custody at a Virginia jail assaulted fellow inmate James Alex Fields Jr., the man accused of driving a car into counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally, the facility’s superintendent said Friday.
Fields was being seen by jail staff in an office Monday morning when Timothy Ray Brown Jr. made his way past a correctional officer and hit Fields “twice on the left side of his body above his shoulders,” Col. Martin Kumer, superintendent of the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, said in a news release.
“At no time did Inmate Fields have an opportunity to defend himself or respond in any manner,” the news release said.
A friend of Brown’s told The Associated Press on Friday that Brown was a friend of Heather Heyer, the woman killed in the Aug. 12, 2017, attack, which left dozens more injured.
Fields — who has been described by authorities and others who knew him as an admirer of Adolf Hitler — faces first-degree murder and other charges in Heyer’s death.
Both Fields and Brown were evaluated after the incident and neither had serious injuries, Kumer said.
Brown has been charged with assault and Fields has been given the chance to pursue criminal charges, according to the news release.
Fields’ attorney didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Jay Scott, a friend of Brown’s who said he was with him and Heyer in downtown Charlottesville when the car plowed into the crowd, learned of the jail fight and started a GoFundMe page this week to raise money for an attorney.
“He shouldn’t have to fight it alone,” said Scott.
The August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally drew hundreds of white nationalists to the college town, where officials planned to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Hundreds more came out to protest against the white nationalists.
Prosecutors allege that after the crowd broke up, Fields drove his car toward the area where a racially diverse group of people had gathered to protest the rally. They say he rapidly accelerated his gray Dodge Challenger into the crowd. The car then reversed and fled.
Fields was arrested a relatively short while after the attack. Kumer told AP he was not aware of any other assaults or threats against Fields during his time in custody.
Fields, of Maumee, Ohio, is scheduled to go on trial next month on the state charges he faces. He also faces federal hate crime charges.