Corey Stewart wins GOP Senate nomination in nail-biter

The contest highlighted regional and generational divides within the Republican primary electorate, as Stewart embraced President Trump, Virginia’s Confederate heritage symbols, and a strong stance against illegal immigration. Freitas aligned himself with more libertarian Republicans nationally, including Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and pressed Stewart to distance himself from the “alt-right,” whcih reached new levels of infamy in Virginia after a Charlottesville rally left one counterprotester dead.

Stewart shot back by framing Freitas as a “Never Trump” conservative inclined to smear supporters of strong borders and immigration enforcement as bigots and racists.

While Stewart’s political career predates Trump’s, both men are considered symbols of the Republican Party’s new populist, nationalist shift. Stewart was campaigning against illegal immigration in the Northern Virginia suburbs and taking a hard line against the MS-13 criminal gang before the current administration.

This rebranding of the party has been unpopular with some affluent, college-educated suburban voters who usually cast their ballots for the GOP. It has also repelled some younger conservative activists, many of whom flocked to Freitas’ campaign.

Stewart came within 1 point of beating Republican establishment favorite Ed Gillespie in the primary for governor last year. He edged out Freitas by a little over 1 point, showing that these divisions in the party are persisting.

In the 2000s, Republicans began having problems motivating their base in more Southern and rural parts of the state while remaining competitive enough in the populous D.C. suburbs. This dilemma has been accentuated under Trump, who ran up huge margins in southwestern Virginia but was trounced up north.

Some of these tensions spilled over in the 2006 Senate race, when Republican incumbent George Allen welcomed a volunteer for Democratic challenger Jim Webb to “real Virginia” and called him a racial slur. Allen apologized but lost that November. Since then, Republicans have occasionally kept statewide races close but have won only once, with a clean sweep of Virginia constitutional offices in 2009.

Rep. Barbara Comstrock, R-Va., is one of the victims of this divide. She prevailed in a primary battle on Tuesday but remains one of the top Democratic targets this year. She will have to contend with lingering bitterness from the GOP primaries while the Democrats nominated their preferred candidate against her.

Democrats soundly defeated Republicans in state and local races across Virginia, though especially in the anti-Trump suburban communities, last year.

Stewart and company believe they will be able to harness the energy of the Republican base with an unvarnished message, unlike timid establishment Republicans who depress conservative turnout. Kaine, who has some $10 million in the bank and seems well positioned for a challenge, was the 2016 Democratic vice presidential nominee. But his popular colleague Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., faced a tough bid from Gillespie in 2014 — albeit a more Republican year.

Although the White House was silent on this race, Trump has had an impact on recent Republican primaries. He helped arrest a Don Blankenship boomlet in West Virginia. Even without his intervention, Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., was forced into a runoff because she was seen as insufficiently supportive of the president. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., was defeated on similar grounds after a late afternoon Trump tweet in favor of his primary opponent.

The close primary has undoubtedly raised Freitas’ profile, given his 43 percent of the vote statewide. The 38-year-old remains a member of the House of Delegates and is well positioned to run for another office.