Corey Stewart, a household name in Prince William County politics for 15 years, is pushing a new T.V. ad attacking Democrat Abigail Spanberger.
It’s the first time Stewart has made a public political statement after he stepped down from the Prince William Board of County Supervisors on December 31, 2019.
In the attack ad, Spanberger is tied to Elizabeth Guzman, a Virginia Delegate representing Prince William and Fauquier counties. She told WJLA-TV she would reintroduce failed legislation allowing social workers to investigate parents and potentially jail them if parents don’t affirm their child’s chosen gender identity.
After the story aired and fellow Virginia Democrats balked, Guzman said she won’t file the bill during the upcoming January 2023 legislative session.
Spanberger and other Virginia Congressional members Gerry Connolly (D-11, Fairfax) and Don Beyer (D-8, Arlington) co-sponsored H.R. 5 that aimed to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964, adding “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” to the text. The bill failed in committee in 2021.
Stewart tells PLN he’s in the process of raising $30,000 to get the ad on the air during the leadup to the November 8 General Election. Voters first elected Stewart to the Prince William Board of Supervisors in 2006. He made unsuccessful bids for Virginia Governor and U.S. Senate during his tenure.
Stewart told PLN he swore off local and state politics but decided to get involved in the federal election to support Vega.
The two-term Spanberger is running against Republican Yesli Vega, a Prince William County Supervisor, in what is now considered a toss-up race. In recent weeks, Vega has rallied voters alongside Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who won in November 2021 on a “parents matter” platform after his opponent, former governor Terry McAuliffe said parents shouldn’t have a say as to what instructors teach in public schools.
During Vega rallies on October 17 and 24, Youngkin and Virginia GOP Chairman Richard Anderson of Prince William County says this year’s election cycle feels similar to last year, as polls show momentum building for Republican congressional candidates across the country.
Youngkin was down in the polls until McAuliffe made the comments. Afterward, the Republican surged in the polls and became Virginia’s first GOP governor in 12 years.
Meanwhile, Stewart still resides in Prince William County. A layer by trade, Stewart now deals in land use cases and successfully argued before the Prince William Board of County Supervisors to approve 240 new apartments along Route 1 in Woodbridge.
We’ve asked the Spanberger campaign for a comment on this story and will update this post should we receive it.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin will hold a rally for Yesli Vega, the Republican seeking Virginia’s 7th District Congressional seat, at the Stafford County Courthouse.
The event begins at 12:30 at the courthouse, 1300 Courthouse Road, and is organized by the governor’s Spirit of Virginia PAC. The rally will be the second for Vega this week in which the governor has participated and the third overall since October 17.
On Monday, October 24, Vega rallied with Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) and Youngkin at Montclair Tabernacle Church near Dumfries in an all-out push to urge voters to head to the polls to support the Republican.
Vega is attacking her Democrat opponent Abigail Spanberger and, by extension, the Biden Administration for rising inflation, the botched pullout of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, and policies in public schools that allow children to use pronouns other than what their parents might refer to them as without seeking parental consent.
Furthermore, Republicans have successfully tied their opponents to Elizabeth Guzman (D), who represents Prince William and Fauquier counties in the Virginia House of Delegates. Earlier this month, Guzman told WJLA-TV she would reintroduce failed legislation allowing social workers to investigate parents and potentially jail them if parents don’t affirm their child’s chosen gender identity.
After the story aired and fellow Virginia Democrats balked, Guzman said she won’t file the bill during the upcoming January 2023 legislative session.
During a campaign event in Dumfries on Wednesday, October 26, Insidenova reports Guzman focused on abortion issues and continues to talk about Vega’s comments made during a campaign rally this past spring where she said women are less likely to get pregnant in cases of rape.
The Supreme Court overturned the nearly 40-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling in a landmark decision earlier this year, allowing individual states’ legislatures to decide if abortion should be legal in their states. Since then, Vega has said it’s now up to states to decide on abortion, not the Federal government.
“My opponent has “endorsed a national abortion ban. My opponent has doubted whether women can get pregnant from rape,” Insidenova quoted Spanberger as saying. “My opponent has advocated for shutting down the federal government. My opponent has called the FBI corrupt.”
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D) of South Carolina appeared with Spanberger in Dumfries.
The 7th District is now considered a toss-up election, with Republicans showing solid gains in recent polls to win control of congress. Election Day is November 8, 2022, and the last day to vote early in person is Saturday, November 5.
Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger visited one of her party’s strongholds in the new 7th District on Tuesday, meeting voters in Dumfries with one of the nation’s longest-serving congressmen, House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina, in tow.
Yesli Vega rode into her campaign, standing atop a motorcoach, waiving at a crowd of more than 400 people gathered near Dumfries to see her.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) stood next to the 7th-District Congressional candidate as the bus pulled into Montclair Tabernacle Church, at 16120 Dumfries Road. It was Vega’s second rally with high-profile politicians in Prince William County in the past three days.
Cruz led the pack as part of the Truth and Courage PAC bus tour of 17 states, rallying conservatives to bring 10 friends to the polls on Election Day, November 8. The common theme during the rally — a “red wave is sweeping the nation, and it began last year in Virginia.” It’s the second time Cruz has campaigned with Vega this year.
“A revival is coming,” said Cruz. “The pendulum is swinging back the other way, and the first sign of hope came with the election of Glenn Youngkin,” said Cruz.
Fresh off an appearance on the TV show “The View” earlier in the day, Cruz harshly criticized the Biden administration’s domestic and foreign policies. Cruz told the crowd nearly four-and-a-half million illegal immigrants had crossed the southern border since Biden took office, while small girls are separated from their parents, handed off to human traffickers, and sexually assaulted.
He called the military withdrawal in Afghanistan a point of weakness for the U.S., one in which world leaders viewed Biden as “weak, feckless, and ineffective.”
Cruz said Republicans are making gains in the Rio Grande Valley in his home state of Texas, an area affected greatly by southern border crossings. The GOP has a slate of women running in those races. However, of all the conservatives running for office this November, he’s most excited about Vega.
“Yesli is a fireball. I listen to Yesli talk and give me the torch, the pitchfork, and let’s March to take America back,” said Cruz.
Youngkin rallied for Vega for the second time in a week. He accused Vega’s opponent, Abigail Spanberger (D), the incumbent in the 7th District, for being “silent” after Prince William County Delegate Elizabeth Guzman told WJLA-TV she would reintroduce legislation that, if passed, would allow Child Protective Services to investigate, and potentially charge parents who don’t affirm a child’s chosen sexual identity.
He compared the comments to his gubernatorial opponent Terry McAuliffe, who said parents should not have a say about what teachers teach in public school classrooms. McAuliffe was on his way to winning the election, according to the polls, before making the comments in the campaign’s final weeks.
“This is a red wave that found its headwaters in Virginia, and it’s sweeping across the nation,” said Youngkin on Monday. “This is our chance to cement Virginia as a red state.”
Vega thanked her husband, children, and parents, who are El Salvadorian immigrants, for their support during the campaign. “I’m the proud daughter of immigrants. Only in America can you come with nothing and achieve everything,” Vega said.
Vega rallied supporters to the polls, assured them the 7th District would flip to GOP control, and that newly elected conservatives in Congress would work to reverse the recent gains of progressive Democrats.
“We’re past the point of Republicans and Democrats,” said Vega. “We’re at a point where it’s now about being an American.”
On Saturday, October 22, former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who renounced the Democratic Party earlier this month, joined Vega for rallies in Prince William and Stafford counties. Both counties the most populous in the new 7th District, which the Virginia Supreme Court redrew to contain parts of Northern Virginia.
Vega, who is relatively new to politics, was elected to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors in 2019 to serve as as the Coles District Supervisor. In June, she excelled through a field of six fellow Republicans to win her party’s nomination.
Spanberger is a CIA case officer and federal law enforcement officer first elected to Congress in 2018.
Election Day is Tuesday, November 8, 2022. Saturday, November 5, 2022, is the last day to vote early in person.
Some Abigail Spanberger campaign signs were found defaced this morning in Woodbridge.
The Prince William County GOP condemned the action, calling it “wrong” and “illegal.” Spanberger is the Democrat incumbent in Virginia’s 7th congressional district and is challenged by Republican Yesli Vega.
Prince William County has become the center of the campaign recently, as Texas Senator Ted Cruz (R) and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin are due at Montclair Tabernacle Church near Dumfries to campaign for Vega at 7:30 p.m.
Former Hawaii Congresswoman and 2020 presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard campaigned for Vega outside Quantico on Saturday.
Here’s the statement from the Prince William GOP on the tattered Spanberger signs:
Early this morning, I was made aware by a Prince William County Democratic Committee colleague that these signs (pictured below) placed in Prince William County had recently been defaced.
As the Vice-Chair of the Prince William County Republican Committee , I want to remind everyone that Chairman Denny Daugherty and our committee leadership has publically condemned destroying and/or defacing Spanberger signs or any ther type of campaign sign.
We believe it is wrong for many reasons but let me list my top three reasons.
1. It is disrespectful to Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger’s campaign. Treat others the way you wish to be treated is what I believe those in the political process should work towards. If you don’t like how others act towards you or your candidate, don’t embody that same action.2. It is against the rule of law and says you are against free speech, a Hallmark of our Democracy. I want the candidates I support to be able to express their campaign message without concern of their signs being damaged, and so should the other party.
3. Destroying/defacing signs wins you absolutely no votes. Signs don’t vote and destroying other’s signs do absolutely to move the needle in voters’ minds. If you want to express your political support for Yesli Vega or Republicans, donate money or go knock doors to encourage others to vote for them, don’t destroy signs.
If you see someone damaging a sign, call the police and report it. It is a misdemeanor in the Commonwealth of Virginia. This only stops if we as a community hold others to the same standard.*This isn’t something you argue or justify because “they did it in the past”. Don’t destroy signs!!!! Full stop.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin will join Yesli Vega for a campaign rally.
The campaign told Potomac Local News via email today the rally will occur at 7 p.m. Monday, October 24, at Montclair Tabernacle Church, at 16120 Dumfries Road near Dumfries.
According to the campaign, the get-out-the-vote rally will highlight the importance of getting out to vote in this year’s election on November 8. This is the second time this year Cruz and Youngkin will have campaigned for Vega.
The event comes two days after former Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard joined Vega on the campaign trail at Quantico and in Stafford County for two rallies. Earlier this month, Gabbard said she is no longer a Democrat and chastised the Biden administration yesterday, saying Democrats in Washington no longer wish to debate issues but rather use the FBI and Department of Justice to investigate and punish those who disagree with their political positions.
Vega (R) seeks to unseat two-term incumbent Abigail Spanberger (D) in Virginia’s 7th District. According to the Cook Political Report, the race leans toward a win for Spanberger.
Last spring, Montclair Tabernacle hosted then-candidates Glenn Youngkin, Winsome Sears, and Jason Miyares last spring. They both went on to win Lt. Governor and Attorney General during Virginia’s General Election in November 2021.
Former Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard made the trip from Hawaii to Quantico Marine Corps Base to campaign for Republican Yesli Vega.
Gabbard joined Vega on the stump at her campaign headquarters, at the Quantico Gateway office complex just outside the base Saturday, October 22, 2022. Gabbard outlined why she left the Democratic Party earlier this month and urged voters to round up their friends and head to the polls to cast their ballot for Vega.
Everything from our freedom of speech to our freedom of religion. [The Biden Administration] is hostile towards people of faith and spirituality, openly hostile to anyone who dares to lift their voice or think for themselves. Worse than that, they are in power and have the muscle of law behind them,” Gabbard told a room of more than 200 conservatives. “We have seen time and time again how they are mobilizing and weaponizing and politicizing. The Department of Justice, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Education, and the Customs and Border Patrol. You go down the list of these institutions that literally exist to serve the public good, to protect our freedoms, to ensure the safety and security of our families, to secure our borders.”
Gabbard said he’s campaigning for multiple candidates this election cycle and was scheduled to make two campaign stops with Vega today. The second was planned after noon in Stafford County, near Fredericksburg.
Gabbard announced her departure from the Democrat Party earlier this month. She was a 2020 presidential candidate who challenged Joseph Biden for his party’s nomination. After dropping out of the race, Gabbard left congress, where she represented Hawaii residents from 2002 to 2003 and again from 2013 to 2020.
Gabbard served in Iraq in a field medical of the Army National Guard from 2004 to 2005 and was stationed in Kuwait from 2008 to 2009 as an Army Military Police platoon leader. She criticized Biden for a speech he delivered in September in Philadelphia in which the President said those who voted for his 2020 opponent, President Donald Trump, are “semi-fascist” extremists.
“…this made me so angry. On 9-1-1, on the anniversary of that horrific terrorist attack on this country, we heard people all over the mainstream media, the radical woke ideologues representing the administration, saying that people who voted for Donald Trump pose a greater threat to us than Al Qaeda terrorists,” said Gabbard.
Vega’s campaign rally comes a day after a canceled debate that was supposed to occur at Gar-Field Senior High School in Woodbridge. Her incumbent opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, dropped out of the debate after taking issue with co-moderator Larry O’Connor, a conservative talk show host from WMAL radio in Washington, D.C.
The first attempt to organize a debate between the two candidates, at Mary Washington University in Fredericksburg in September, failed after Vega refused to stand on stage with Spanberger, calling it a college campus full of Spanaberger supporters. With only 17 days until Election Day and early voting underway, it’s unlikely the two will face off on the debate stage this election cycle.
“We are ready for change and feel it all over this district,” said Vega. “We had a debate scheduled for yesterday, but it’s no surprise my opponent is hiding and running.” Vega is an elected Prince William County Supervisor and a deputy sheriff in the county.
Spanberger, a two-term incumbent seeking to keep the 7th District seat, worked in the CIA’s Clandestine Service, gathering intelligence on nuclear terrorism until 2014, when she left the agency to an appointment to a state board by then Gov. Terry McAuliffe. She won reelection in 2029 by about 8,000 votes of more than 454,000 ballots.
The Virginia State Supreme Court redrew the state’s political districts last year. It shifted the 7th District north, away from Spanberger’s home outside Richmond, to include eastern Prince William County, Spotsylvania, King George, Culpeper, Greene, Madison counties, and Fredericksburg.
Former Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman, who represented Virginia’s 5th District from 2019 to 2021, recently appeared in a TV commercial endorsing Spanberger.
- The deadline to apply for a ballot to be mailed to you is October 28, 2022. Your local voter registration office must receive your request by 5 p.m.
- The last day of in-person early voting at your local voter registration office is Saturday, November 5, 2022, at 5 p.m.
A year ago, Republicans swept Democrats from statewide offices in Richmond, from the governor’s mansion to the attorney general’s office.
Now Virginia Republicans are speaking boldly and hoping the red wave will flow through the halls of Congress in Washington and continue into 2023 in the General Assembly.
Republicans in the state are feeling ever more confident in the run-up to the November 8 General Election, as most polls of likely voters indicate they are older and plan to vote for Republicans.
They’re also capitalizing on the announcement from Prince William County Delegate Elizabeth Guzman (D) that she would reintroduce failed legislation from 2020 when Democrats held control of both the Virginia House and Senate, allowing for criminal investigations of parents who do not affirm their child’s gender identity.
Guzman backtracked after fellow Democrats balked at her plan, with Minority Leader Don Scott (D) calling it “dead on arrival” and a distraction during the current election cycle where Democrats are looking to keep congressional seats in what was once a deep blue state.
It’s reminiscent of Terry McAuliffe, who, about this time last year, stood on a debate stage with candidate Glenn Youngkin and said parents shouldn’t dictate what should be taught in classrooms.
Afterward, Youngkin surged in the polls, launched a faction of his campaign called “parents matter,” and, along with Winsome Sears and Jason Miyares, went on to become the first winning Republican ticket to statewide office in 12 years.
“This has all the feel of last year, and that bodes well for all of the congressional districts I’ve visited,” said Virginia Republican Party Chairman Richard Anderson of Prince William County.
Anderson used those comments to rally the crowd at a rally for Yesli Vega last night near Fredericksburg, whose seeking to unseat Abigail Spanberger in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, containing eastern Prince William County, Stafford, and Spotsylvania counties, and Fredericksburg.
In recent weeks, the race has become one of the most closely watched in the U.S., along with Virginia’s 10th District in western Prince William and Loudoun counties, where Hung Cao (R), a retired Navy captain, hopes to unseat incumbent Jennifer Wexton (D).
Anderson said his GOP is implementing a three-year plan to elect more conservatives, and it started last year with Youngkin and company and flipping the House of Delegates back to Republican control in 2021.
If the GOP is successful in this year’s congressional races, Anderson said will give the party the momentum it needs in year three to take back the Virginia Senate in 2023 to fully control state government, said Anderson.
This week, Spanberger dropped out of a debate with Vega scheduled for Friday, October 21, at Gar-Field High School in Woodbridge. Spanberger cited one of the planned debate moderators for her withdrawal, Larry O’Connor, a conservative radio host on WMAL-FM in Washington, D.C.
Spanberger took to Twitter to explain why she pulled out. At the same time, Vega, during a campaign stop with Gov. Glenn Youngkin in Spotsylvania County last night, said Spanberger didn’t want to debate because of her record of voting along party lines and supporting Hosue Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s agenda.
“If you’re my opponent… I wouldn’t want to debate me, either,” said Vega. “What is she going to say about the economy? What is she going to say about the southern border? What will she say about wanting to put parents in jail for not conforming to woke culture?
Vega has been critical of President Biden’s plan to forgive student debt. The Prince William Times reports she and her husband filed bankruptcy in 2009, with most of their debt tied to student loans.
Youngkin joined Vega on stage and handed her one of his trademark red fleece vests he wore on the campaign trail in 2021. He told supporters Vega would ride a red wave into Washington, washing out Pelosi and the current Democratic leadership in congress.
“One year ago, there was a movement that started in the commonwealth of Virginia, a movement that is a red wave that is sweeping across the country and the headwaters are right here in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” said Youngkin.
The General Election is on November 8, and early in-person absentee voting is underway through Sunday, November 5 at 5 p.m.
Virginia’s 7th District congressional candidates will debate on October 21, a matchup of Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger and Republican challenger Yesli Vega.
The debate will occur at Gar-Field Senior High School, 1400 Smoketown Road in Woodbridge, at 7 p.m. The exchange is sponsored by the Prince William Committee of 100. The organizer has yet to announce a moderator.
C-SPAN will record the event, as it did an October 5 debate candidate forum for Jennifer Wexton (D) and Hung Cao (R), who are running for Virginia’s 10th District Congressional seat.
The 7th-District congressional race is expected to be one of Virginia’s most competitive. Democrats are trying to maintain their slim majority in the House of Representatives.
Spanberger is serving her second term representing the district, but prior to her win, the 7th had been held by Republicans since the 1970s. Although the district went for Democratic President Joe Biden in the 2020 election, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin won the district comfortably only a year later. The Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball both list the 7th as a Democrat-leaning district for the midterm elections.
Although Spanberger has positioned herself as a moderate, she has voted with Biden’s agenda on 100% of the issues, according to a tally from the elections analysis website FiveThirtyEight. She only voted with former President Donald Trump 8.7% during her time in office. The congresswoman has supported a new federal assault weapons ban. She has supported environmental policies but was critical of the Green New Deal and was critical of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Vega has argued that a free market is the best way to address inflation and other economic issues. She has criticized the U.S. Treasury for printing money and said that mandates and regulations were holding back the economy. She has also supported gun rights.
The election is on Nov. 8.
The Center Square contributed to this report.
