GOP Senate candidate caught calling white supremacist a ‘personal hero’

With just a week to go until Virginia’s Senate primary, GOP candidate Corey Stewart — a Prince William County supervisor and former Trump campaign chair — is facing an explosive charge.

On Monday, the conservative Daily Wire posted footage originally uploaded to Stewart’s YouTube account in February 2017, showing him celebrating with Wisconsin congressional candidate Paul Nehlen on inauguration night.

“One of my personal heroes, not from Virginia, but from the great state of Wisconsin, there is Paul Nehlen, who had a lot of courage and took on Speaker Ryan. And I can’t tell you how much I was inspired by you,” he says.

Nehlen, who is running for Paul Ryan’s open seat, is a proud white supremacist and anti-Semite.

A self-described “pro-white” candidate who has appeared on the podcast of Klan leader David Duke, Nehlen has claimed that “the Jews” repeat the themes of “poop, incest, and pedophilia,” mocked the Holocaust, and posted lengthy lists of his critics complete with personal information, noting (incorrectly) that “74 are Jews.”

Nehlen’s views are so extreme that Breitbart severed ties with him. He was banned from Twitter after posting a racist image of Meghan Markle. Even Gab, a social media site beloved by the alt-right, eventually kicked him off for allegedly doxing another white supremacist.

But Stewart’s flirtation with Nehlen can hardly be considered surprising, as he is an unabashed extremist himself.

Stewart supports flying the Confederate flag, wants to prosecute local officials who don’t racially profile Latinos, and has implied Republicans who support expanding Medicaid have erectile dysfunction. And, in addition to Nehlen, Stewart has appeared in public with Jason Kessler, the neo-Nazi leader who organized last year’s violent demonstrations in Charlottesville.

Stewart’s primary challengers are E. W. Jackson, a minister who has blamed yoga for Satanic possession, and state Del. Nick Freitas, who has claimed “the abortion industry” is responsible for gun violence.

One recent poll found incumbent Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine would beat all three by over 20 points, and some Republican strategists are openly resigned to the fact that Virginia will not be in play for them this year.

But Stewart has enjoyed an unnerving degree of electoral competitiveness in recent races, nearly winning the GOP nomination for governor last year. And at least one internal poll suggests he could very well take the nomination for U.S. Senate.

Stewart is dragging Virginia’s Senate race down a dark and ugly path — and the public deserves answers on where he stands on white supremacy.