Virginia Has a Roy Moore Problem: How Do We Deal With It?

As always, these views are my own unless otherwise noted. They should not be associated with any candidate or PAC. 

This might seem weird to some, but the Republican Party of Virginia inherited a Roy Moore problem on Tuesday night. For those who are unaware, Corey Stewart won the Senate nomination on Tuesday night, defeating both libertarian-leaning Delegate Nick Freitas and Bishop E.W. Jackson. Because of Stewart's self-made connections to white nationalists and the Confederacy, Virginia Republicans have all but conceded the Senate race to incumbent Senator Tim Kaine.

Before we get into the meat of the argument, we need to backup a little bit. For those who are unaware of Roy Moore, he was the Republican nominee in Alabama's special election this past December to replace Senator Luther Strange, who lost the Republican Primary to Moore after Jeff Sessions became the current Attorney General. The eyes of the nation were on this race when Moore was accused of sexual misconduct during the height of the #MeToo movement. His allegations were especially shocking because some of them involved girls as young as 14 years old. After these allegations came to light, Senate leadership in Washington struggled over whether they would allow him to be sworn in if he won, but a decision ultimately did not need to be made because Alabama voted for Doug Jones, Alabama's first Democratic Senator in 25 years.

You might be asking, what does Roy Moore have to do with Corey Stewart? Well, first of all, Stewart defended Moore when the allegations first came out and he even traveled to Alabama in the final days of the campaign to help him win the race. Stewart did not condemn child sex abuse when everyone else around him did; while most called for Moore to drop out of the race, Stewart rushed to his side and supported him.

Fast-forward to current time and Corey Stewart finds himself in the same situation as his former friend. The National Republican Senate Committee said Wednesday that they do not have plans to endorse Stewart in his race against Kaine. Prominent conservative organizations such as Americans for Prosperity have announced that they will not be supporting Stewart in the general election because of his history of tax increases.

Many Republicans are refusing to support him because of his ties to white nationalism and the Confederacy. A week before the primary, Delegate Freitas' campaign pushed a video that showed Stewart with Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semitic figure who ran against House Speaker Paul Ryan in Wisconsin, at an inaugural party for Donald Trump. Stewart calls Nehlen his "personal hero" in the video, which the Stewart campaign deleted from his YouTube page shortly after the scandal began. Nehlen is a controversial figure because he has tweeted anti-Semitic and said anti-Muslim things during his political career. The Stewart campaign made the argument that the video was made before Nehlen publicly outed himself as an anti-Semite, but Nehlen had stated during his Wisconsin primary campaign that he wanted to deport all Muslims from the United States in 2016, long before Trump was sworn in as President. In addition to Nehlen, Stewart also had made an appearance with Jason Kessler, the man behind the August 2017 Charlottesville riots that killed one counter-protester, in February 2017 during Stewart's gubernatorial run. Stewart also tweeted at one time that he did not believe that Barack Obama's birth certificate was real, echoing the sentiments of Trump's birther movement. Speaking of Trump, he endorsed Stewart's run soon after his win Wednesday morning.

When Freitas' campaign told voters in an email that it was "time we defeat the hate mongers" such as Stewart, John Whitbeck, the chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, posted a letter on Facebook that criticized Freitas for making the claims rather than making Stewart condemn his comments about Nehlen like he should have. By slapping Freitas on the wrist instead of forcing Stewart to step aside, Whitbeck put blame on the wrong person and showed that Stewart's behavior was welcomed within the RPV. The RPV could have avoided this situation by forcing him to drop out, but now they have to deal with Stewart and his behavior for five more months. Whitbeck now is asking for unity, but I am not sure if he will get it this time around.

So, how do we deal with our problem? Along with many other Republicans, I say that our best plan is to ignore Stewart completely and focus on the House races across the Commonwealth. Candidates such as Scott Taylor (2nd), Denver Riggleman (5th), Ben Cline (6th), Dave Brat (7th), and Barbara Comstock (10th) face very tough races with legitimate Democratic challengers, and Stewart's nomination has made these races even tougher. Because of Stewart, these campaigns will have to fight twice as hard to win or keep their seats. These are all great candidates and they deserve to serve in the House of Representatives and should not be affected by anything that Stewart does or says.

My advice to all of the House races across the Commonwealth: DO NOT ENDORSE OR ASSOCIATE WITH COREY STEWART UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Doing so could negatively impact your campaign and could put at risk all of the hard work that you have done thus far. I won't say that associating with Stewart will doom the campaign because I do not know that for sure, but a large faction of voters are disgusted with Corey Stewart's rhetoric and history, and by associating him with your campaign, you are only giving the Democrats another thing to attack you with. As of the writing of this post, only Ben Cline's campaign to my knowledge has shown support for Stewart; I am interested to see if the association actually affects his campaign in a bad way.

As for my current plans for the general election, I do not plan to support either Corey Stewart or Tim Kaine right now. A decision will be made eventually, but I need more time to heal from Nick Freitas' loss and for now, I will focus my efforts on flipping the 4th District for Ryan McAdams and protecting the 7th District for Congressman Dave Brat. We have about five months until the general election; I am sure I will put my support behind a Senate candidate soon enough.

This post was inspired by a post I read on The Bull Elephant, which you can read here. While we may feel that Option 5 is the best option, Option 4 is actually our best bet. Let's make sure that Virginia's House seats stay or turn red in November and let's defend these campaigns from anything negative that could come out of the Stewart campaign over the next few months!

In Liberty,
Jacob Stech

My Endorsement of Nick Freitas for U.S. Senate

This Tuesday, June 12th, voters will be going to the polls to decide who is the best fit to defeat incumbent Senator Tim Kaine in November. In a time where Republicans are being attacked in the era of Trump, it is important that our nominee is someone that can bring people together with his common sense values and reach out to all voters. It is obvious that our nominee should be Delegate Nick Freitas.

Nick Freitas has served in the House of Delegates since 2015. Ever since he’s been elected, he has fought hard for conservative values that matter such as civil asset forfeiture and the Second Amendment. He is a retired Green Beret that has received an A+ rating from the NRA. He has never voted for a tax increase; in fact, he is the only candidate in the Republican Primary with a voting record at all. 

Delegate Freitas has a history of supporting libertarian-leaning reforms, which shows that he can appeal to a more broader base than the other candidates. He supports criminal justice reform so that all people are treated equally under the law. He believes that the government should not tax us into oblivion and that we should have a flat tax. He is willing to admit that the Republican Party has a problem with government spending and that we need to control how much we spend. He supports medicinal marijuana, which shows he is willing to support bold reforms while his fellow Republican colleagues may be more hesitant. Because of these positions, he has gathered endorsements from important figures such as Rep. Ron Paul, Sen. Rand Paul, and Sen. Mike Lee! 

Nick also supports typical conservative reforms such as being pro-life, pro-gun, and anti-Obamacare. He supports school choice, less regulations, and securing the border. He believes that legal immigration is important and should be welcomed, but we must protect our borders while welcoming those legal immigrants. 

Nick himself is also a man of honor who has shown the utmost respect towards our country, the process, and his voters and constituents. He served two tours as a Green Beret in the Middle East after the 9/11 attacks. After he was honorably discharged, he served as an operations director for a service-disabled veteran-owned company. During the petitioning phase of the campaign, Nick was able to gather all of his signatures through volunteers while his opponents hired firms to do all of the work. He is also very personable with his voters and constituents. When I was interning at the General Assembly, I had a short conversation with Nick in his office in which I thanked him for everything he has done so far and to tell him that I was supporting him. He thanked me for everything I had done to gather petition signatures to get him on the ballot at the time and that he looked forward to having me on the team; he also took the time to ask me about my future after I graduated from college and he gave me some advice, which was something he totally did not have to do. I ran into him at a couple of events afterwards and he remembered who I was and thanked me again for the time I had put in. I appreciated these moments because it shows that he genuinely cares about the work that has been done and he is trying to get to know his current and (hopefully) future constituents.

In order to understand why we should nominate Nick Freitas to take on Sen. Tim Kaine, we should look at Nick’s opposition. His opponents for the Republican nomination are E.W. Jackson and Corey Stewart. I have had the pleasure of speaking with all three candidates for the nomination, and I can tell you that all three are nice men who know how to get their point across. While he is a kind man with a lot of heart, Jackson had a hard time gathering support during his 2013 general election campaign for lieutenant governor because of some of his comments. Stewart is a different story; while he is also a nice man in person, his campaign has focused on dividing those within the party and his campaign has thrown dirty attacks at “establishment” Republicans across the board. In a time where we need to bring people to the party with a positive outlook based on policy, Stewart is energizing his small base while pushing people away with his message of divisiveness and hatred. Stewart’s lack of judgment is also an issue, as he has aligned himself with anti-Semites such as Paul Nehlen in recent years (it took him three days to condemn his connections with Nehlen). Voting for either Jackson or Stewart is guaranteeing a Kaine win in November. 

All in all, Nick Freitas’s campaign is different than any other campaign I have been a part of. Nick Freitas is more than just a candidate, he is the leader of a bigger movement. This campaign has so many energized volunteers and supporters that want to advance the cause of individual liberty and free markets. His grassroots support has caused him to be undefeated in straw polls across the commonwealth and he has won every debate that he has been a part of. Tim Kaine is definitely going to have a tough time debating Nick Freitas, as he knows how to speak and I don’t believe I have ever seen him mix his words. While I am aware that the general election will be an uphill battle, Nick Freitas is ready for that battle and has the best chance to defeat Kaine in November. He said once that armed-combat can prepare one for domestic politics! 

Please do not forget to vote in the Republican Primary this Tuesday, June 12th for Nick Freitas. If you are a Democrat, please consider voting in the Republican Primary for Freitas because Kaine is unopposed in the primary. Trust me, a Stewart vs. Kaine election would be the ugliest campaign in the entire 2018 cycle, and I don’t think that I can handle another below-the-belt campaign. If Freitas was to win the general election, the campaign would be one based on policy, and I have the utmost confidence that he will look out for ALL Virginians in Congress while Stewart might not necessarily do that. Anyway, let’s get ready for the general election! It’s going to be a fun one! PLEASE VOTE! 

In Liberty,

Jacob Stech