Virginia GOP picks Senate candidate whose 'hero' is a white supremacist

Virginia Republicans faced a list of deeply problematic candidates for Senate. But they might have picked the worst option possible in Corey Stewart, who won the nomination Tuesday.

A Prince William County supervisor and ex-Trump campaign official who nearly won the nomination for governor last year, Stewart got the nod for Senate despite the revelation just a week ago that he posted a video of himself last year calling overt white supremacist and anti-Semite Paul Nehlen a “personal hero.”

Nehlen, a self-described “pro-white” candidate for House Speaker Paul Ryan’s open congressional seat, has mocked the Holocaust, appeared on the podcast of KKK leader David Duke, and doxed the personal information of online activists and media figures he believes are Jewish. He was banned from Twitter for posting a racist image of Meghan Markle.

An investigation by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski found Stewart also paid Nehlen $759 to rent his email list.

Confronted last week, Stewart tried to disavow his friendliness with Nehlen, saying, “That was before he went nuts and started spewing a bunch of stupid stuff.”

But as Kaczynski notes, Stewart’s dealings with Nehlen occurred “well after Nehlen had begun making viciously anti-Muslim comments and promoting fringe conspiracy theories.”

And even before the Nehlen controversy, Stewart was known for racist and extreme views.

He furiously defends the Confederate battle flag and monuments, wants to arrest mayors who do not help racially profile Latinos, and said Republicans who vote to expand Medicaid have erectile dysfunction. He even appeared in public last year with neo-Nazi activist Jason Kessler, two months before he organized the deadly riot in Charlottesville.

Even Trump’s presidential campaign team fell out with Stewart, who had initially served as the co-chair of the campaign in Virginia. He was fired from that role after he held a rally at the headquarters of the Republican National Committee, decrying some members of the GOP as “establishment pukes” for criticizing Trump over the “Access Hollywood” tape.

Republicans in Virginia have decided this man is their best foot forward to challenge Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine. It’s no wonder the Virginia GOP has been fretting for months that they don’t have any real candidates who can possibly win.