A new Ralph Northam campaign ad said that “Ed Gillespie won’t stand up to Donald Trump because he’s right next to him.”
Breitbart News executive chairman Steven. K Bannon declared that that the Donald Trump nationalist-populist base will elect Ed Gillespie for Virginia governor.
The ad said that there remains “not much distance between” Trump and the Republican gubernatorial candidate. The ad suggested that Gillespie supports the president’s agenda to expand charter schools, roll back onerous energy regulations, and repeal Obamacare.
At the Remembrance Project National Conference in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, former White House chief strategist and Breitbart News executive chairman Steve Bannon charged that Trump and Corey Stewart voters were going to win the Virginia governorship for Ed Gillespie.
Corey Stewart lost in the Republican gubernatorial primary to Ed Gillespie by a slim margin; Stewart ran a Trump nationalist-populist campaign, pledging to tackle MS-13 in Northern Virginia, ban sanctuary cities, and combat illegal immigration.
In his speech on Saturday, Bannon said, “If Gillespie … a Bush guy … wins, and I do believe that Gillespie’s going to pull this thing out.”
Bannon added, “it will be because of the underlying message of Corey Stewart and what he believes in, and the Trump voters in Virginia who are gonna turn out!”
Gillespie initially trailed in the polls to Northam. However, in the last few weeks, Gillespie tied, and in some polls beat, Northam by making MS-13 a focal point of his campaign. Gillespie also promised to sign legislation that would ban sanctuary cities in the Commonwealth of Virginia, which put so much pressure on his Democratic opponent that Northam flip-flopped in favor of banning sanctuary cities.
Stewart, who is running for the open Senate seat against Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) in 2018, suggested that a Gillespie victory will add momentum to the Trump nationalist-populist movement. Stewart told Breitbart News, “Gillespie win or a narrow loss means there will be a lot more national money and resources going into Virginia in 2018.”
The Virginia election is on Tuesday, November 7.