Corey Stewart (politician)

Corey Stewart (born August 1, 1968) is an American lawyer and Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia. He is serving his fourth term as At-Large Chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Prince William County, Virginia.
Stewart, a Republican, has a reputation as a "blunt and outspoken" conservative, most notably in the context of his 2007 crackdown on illegal immigration, which drew national media attention. Stewart served as the Virginia Chairman of the Donald Trump for President campaign between December 2015 and October 2016.

Elections

Stewart was first elected as Chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors in a November 2006 special election to replace Sean Connaughton (who resigned to take a post at the United States Maritime Administration). Stewart defeated Democratic Party candidate Sharon Pandak with 53% of the vote. Stewart was elected to a full term in 2007 with 55% of the vote, re-elected in 2011, and re-elected to serve a third term in 2015 with 57% of the vote.

Illegal Immigration

In 2007, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution targeting illegal immigrants; the resolution ordered the Prince William County Police Department to check the immigration status of anyone who breaks the law and cuts off public services to illegal immigrants.

Second Amendment

Stewart led the successful effort to eliminate Prince William County's concealed-carry handgun permit fee, reducing the overall cost to lawful handgun owners from $50 to the state minimum of $15.

Spending Cuts

Stewart has attracted controversy by consistently advocating for significant reductions in government spending. Shortly after becoming Board Chairman in 2006, Stewart presided over the largest property tax cut in County history, slashing the average tax bill of county homeowners by $446 between FY'08 and FY'09, an approximately 12.2% reduction. During his ten-year term as Chairman (FY'07 - FY'17), average adjusted real estate tax bills for county homeowners have been held flat and are approximately 30% lower than other localities in Northern Virginia.

Stewart unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in the 2013 election. In a seven-person race, Stewart was eliminated in the third round of voting in the Republican convention, losing to E. W. Jackson.

In December 2015, Republican U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump announced that he had chosen Stewart to chair his campaign in Virginia. Stewart has been an outspoken proponent for Trump in national media. Even as other Republican officials disavowed Trump after various controversies, Stewart steadfastly continued to support him. In July 2016, Stewart blamed "liberal Democrats" and specifically Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam for the spree killing of police officers in Dallas, Texas.

On October 10, 2016, amid reports that the Republican National Committee was withdrawing resources from the Trump campaign to focus on down-ballot races, Stewart joined a pro-Trump women's demonstration in front of the Committee's Washington, D.C. headquarters, resulting in his removal from the campaign. Days later, it was announced that the RNC and the Trump Campaign would be withdrawing from Virginia, drawing the ire of Stewart, who blasted the decision as a betrayal of the grassroots and "totally premature." Despite his release from the campaign, Stewart has remained one of Donald Trump's strongest defenders.

At the Virginia State Republican Convention on April 30, 2016, Stewart announced his intent to run for Governor of Virginia. Stewart is considered at the very conservative end of the Republican candidates for Governor of Virginia in 2017. In December 2016, Stewart announced that his campaign for Governor of Virginia would give away an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle for Christmas to highlight his support for Constitutional carry in Virginia, which would enable law-abiding citizens to conceal carry handguns without a permit.

A Minnesota native, Stewart first came to the Metro-D.C. area in 1988, transferring to Georgetown University after a year at Saint Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. He went on to get a degree from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, becoming the first member of his family to graduate from college. Later, he graduated magna cum laude from the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, but he ultimately decided to settle in Virginia. Stewart works as an international trade attorney, and he and his family now make their home in Bel Air, a colonial-era plantation house in Woodbridge that Thomas Jefferson and George Washington visited and that later was the home of Mason Locke Weems, Washington’s first biographer and the creator of the cherry tree story. He met his wife, Maria, who is from Sweden, when he spent a year teaching English in Japan between his undergraduate time and law school. The couple has two sons.