RICHMOND — GOP U.S. Senate candidate Corey Stewart has fired a top campaign aide, Noel Fritsch, who had helped bring a far-right presence to the campaign’s social media and strategy.
Fritsch, who lives in North Carolina, responded by text to a request for an interview, saying: “Are you at liberty to tell me how you learned?” but did not return the phone call seeking comment.
Stewart, facing an uphill fight against Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., confirmed to the newspaper that he let Fritsch go, but declined to say why.
“I can confirm that he’s no longer with the campaign as of Aug. 31,” Stewart said Monday.
Fritsch had previously worked for candidates including Paul Nehlen, an anti-Semitic politician in Wisconsin who has run against GOP House Speaker Paul Ryan; and Roy Moore, the failed GOP Senate candidate in Alabama who faced allegations that he sexually preyed on young women years ago.
Fritsch also worked on Stewart’s GOP primary run for governor in 2017.
Stewart has walked back praise he previously offered to Nehlen, saying he did not know Nehlen was anti-Semitic when Stewart called him his “personal hero.” Stewart traveled to Alabama in December to campaign for Moore, who lost the race to Democrat Doug Jones.
Fritsch made a series of controversial social media posts that drew negative attention to Stewart’s campaign. Another Stewart campaign aide, Rick Shaftan, has a history of social media posts that includes calling the NAACP a “more violent” version of the KKK and saying only a “fool” would start a business in a black neighborhood. John Whitbeck, the immediate past chairman of the Virginia GOP, called Shaftan’s posts “despicable.”
I don’t know about you but I am just plain old curious what Noel Fritsch did to get fired. Was he racist? Was he a white supremacist? Did he praise the dude who killed Heather Heyer in Charlottesville a little over a year ago? Why would you have someone who supported Roy Moore as your campaign chairman anyway?
This makes no sense to me. Is there such a thing as being just a little bit Nazi? Where is the benchmark? Where are the standards? Is Corey going to address this issue more directly? Are we going to not demand answers?
I know, lots and lots of questions but that’s about all we are left to deal with when someone as important as a campaign manager just goes poof!
I checked out this dude’s Facebook page. I am pretty sure I have the right person because the FB page I checked had lots of friends standing with “Old Dixie.” I also found this post which I thought spoke volumes: “College only cares about what between your legs & your skin color.”
If you are still curious, check out this CNN Politics article. What took Corey so long to fire him or was this all by design?
Is that Corey to the right of “Old Dixie?” It appears that it is.
