Stephen J. Farnsworth, a political scientist at the University of Mary Washington, does not believe a Trump rally would do Gillespie much good: “Northam probably gains at least as much as Gillespie does should Trump campaign shoulder to shoulder with Gillespie,” he said. “The University of Mary Washington poll out this week shows that Gillespie already has the support of nearly all Trump voters. There’s no real evidence in the UMW survey that Corey Stewart voters are nursing a grudge and plan to punish Gillespie. My guess is the fact that Stewart is running for Senate in 2018 has taken the string out of the gubernatorial primary defeat for most of his backers.”
