Mediaboss Marketing

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) -- Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Corey Stewart held a rally on the steps of the Rockingham Circuit Courthouse Saturday, April 1, to voice his opposition to illegal immigration in the United States.

"It's a beautiful day and we're on the court steps, so I think it probably turned out for the better," said the Republican.

Earlier in the week, Stewart proposed stricter rules to tackle illegal entry into the country, including forcing law enforcement to determine the immigration status of all inmates and stripping state funding from sanctuary cities.

"He's a very good man. I think he's very true to what he says," said Alma Bible, who was in attendance.

"My husband immigrated to this country when he was four from Peru. It's an incredibly emotional topic," Elizabeth Ochoa said.

The change of location to Court Square was made after two city restaurants refused to host his event, due to miscommunication over its nature.

Stewart claimed this was the result of a conspiracy from "liberal activists" with ties to multi-billionaire George Soros.

"This indivisible group [...] has been calling around to these restaurants, trying to get them to pull the location which they were successful in doing in Harrisonburg," said Stewart.

Harrisonburg Indivisible, a community activist group, said they did place calls to the restaurants.

"We felt it would be better for Corey Stewart to hold his rally in a neutral public space rather than in a restaurant where some of the patrons and some of the employees are immigrants," said organizer John Schaldach. "Today we saw peaceful protests. We saw a direct action type of behavior with the restaurants this week, and Corey Stewart got to get his message out there. This is what democracy looks like."

Even after the events this week, Stewart said he has optimism moving forward.

"The gain for me is to push out the voters on June 13 right here in the Valley, because this is where we're getting a lot of our support," he said.

It appears Stewart has a steep hill to climb before June. In a recent poll from Christopher Newport University, the fired Trump campaign state chairman trailed more than 25 points behind Ed Gillespie for the nomination, with 38-percent of Republicans questioned still undecided.

A local organizer said this was not Stewart's last stop in the Valley. He will make several more appearances here in the coming weeks before the primary on June 13.

View original post here:
GOP gubernatorial hopeful holds rally against illegal immigration - WHSV