He rails against illegal immigration and bad trade deals, dismisses the Russia investigation as “a witch-hunt”, uses Twitter to hurl insults at his opponent and defends white people’s right to fly the Confederate flag.

No, not Donald Trump. This is Corey Stewart, Republican candidate for the US Senate in Virginia and among a generation of what might be called “mini-Trumps” – politicians who are embracing not only the president’s populist agenda but his wrecking-ball style in the hope of repeating his success at the ballot box.

Copycat tactics ahead of November’s midterm elections include flaunting political incorrectness, courting controversy for its own sake, blasting out inflammatory tweets in upper case, railing against “fake news” in local media, never backing down or saying sorry, trafficking in conspiracy theories and denigrating rivals with tags evocative of “Crooked” Hillary.

“Since Trump currently has 88% approval among Republicans (stronger than any modern president of either party except Bush right after 9/11) it makes sense for candidates in his party to emulate him,” Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker and a prominent Trump supporter, said via email. “If Republicans are willing to fight toe to toe with the left they will win a shocking victory this fall. If they try to appease the media and the elites, they will lose the House.”

The elections offer the first comprehensive test of whether Trump is sui generis or his winning formula can be replicated without his celebrity and wealth. Several imitators have already fallen by the wayside in Republican primaries. Several more are struggling in opinion polls against Democratic rivals as they desperately try to mimic the president.

Watch this mini Trump campaign ad: it is surprisingly (and disturbingly) funny Read more

It is a sign of Trump’s cult-of-personality dominance of the Republican party that candidates are now falling over each other to demonstrate their ideological fealty. All are aware that his endorsement can make the difference between victory and defeat among primary voters. Some are taking it one step further by also copying his methods, no matter how coarse.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brian Kemp has attacked his opponent in Georgia for spreading ‘fake news’. Photograph: John Amis/AP

In Georgia, Brian Kemp is waging a vicious campaign against the Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is bidding to be the first African American female governor in US history. He has called her a liar who spreads “fake news” and tweeted a video clip that described her as a George Soros-backed candidate. His TV ads have shown him holding a gun that “no one’s taking away” and sitting in a Ford F350 truck that he would use “just in case I need to round up criminal illegals and take them home myself”.

Some indulge in Trumpian name calling. The conservative businessman Mike Braun, running for the Senate in Indiana, branded his primary rivals “Luke the Liberal” and “Todd the Fraud”. Others follow the president’s lead on Twitter. In Arizona, Kelli Ward’s timeline is replete with hashtags such as #AmericaFirst, #BuildTheWall, #RepealObamacare and even #BIGLY.

Dr. Kelli Ward (@kelliwardaz) In Washington, I’ll be a true problem solver who will work together with @realDonaldTrump to move forward the #AmericaFirst agenda. My policy passions are #BuildTheWall, #RepealObamacare, grow our #economy, end wasteful spending, & take care of our veterans! #AZSEN #VoteWard pic.twitter.com/o0i3ogooJg

A sample of tweets on Friday by the former soap opera actor Antonio Sabato Jr, running for Congress in southern California, offers another insight. In turns he celebrated the latest jobs numbers; promoted a film by Dinesh D’Souza, who has pushed conspiracy theories; mocked Barack Obama; slammed CNN for “fake news”; had a dig at the New York Times; championed a border wall and demanded: “Democrats cry for illegal alien children – encouraged to cross the border by their own parents – but what about the American children who’ve been killed by illegal aliens and permanently separated from their parents?”

Perhaps most vividly (and knowingly) of all, the congressman Ron DeSantis, campaigning for the governorship of Florida, released a humorous campaign video in which he and his children build a wall from toy bricks, read Trump’s book The Art of the Deal and use a “Make America great again” sign to learn reading. DeSantis was trailing in the polls in the Republican primary until Trump’s endorsement turned the race on its head.

Play Video 0:31 Ron DeSantis has released an ad indoctrinating his children into Trumpism - video

For his part, Corey Stewart, running for senator in Virginia, claims he “was Trump before Trump was Trump” and with some justification. He has long bemoaned illegal immigration and bad international trade deals and defended the Confederate flag as a symbol of “heritage” rather than “racism”. Last year he shared the president’s view that “there was violence on both sides” during a white supremacist march in Charlottesville and campaigned for Roy Moore, the losing Senate candidate in Alabama accused of sexually assaulting underage girls.

For the Senate election in Virginia, his abrasive, divisive and offensive campaign has the perfect foil: Tim Kaine, the mild-mannered incumbent who was Hillary Clinton’s running mate in the 2016 presidential election. “Time for little Timmy to retire,” Stewart has tweeted, while also playing familiar Trump hits by attacking the CNN reporter Jim Acosta and the New York Times. Last December he even posted: “@TheDemocrats got cocky forging @BarackObama birth certificate.”

The 50-year-old, originally from Duluth, Minnesota, denies that he is consciously aping Trump’s Twitter tirades. “But of course there are certain things that he does that were very effective,” Stewart said in a phone interview this week. “I think that attaching a one-word or two-word moniker on your opponent worked for him and is an effective tool. The days of the intellectual exchange of ideas are long gone, well before President Trump ever ran for office.”

But Stewart, who was Virginia state chairman for Trump in the 2016 campaign, warned fellow Republicans against merely trying to parody the president. “I think it’s important to be yourself. If that’s not your style and it doesn’t feel right, then don’t do it. The most important thing that Trump showed us is: don’t copy Trump but don’t be afraid to be yourself.

“I’ve got a blue-collar background – my dad was a longshoreman – so when I speak with my friends and family I’m much more abrupt in the way I speak. Prior to Trump, Republicans were more polished and the hair was perfectly coiffed and they gave these memorised, cliched speeches. That was just the style and I think what President Trump showed is that you can be yourself. You don’t have to have a particular style to be successful.”

He added: “We are at the beginning of an era of authenticity. Whoever you are, people want you to be real. We’ve grown weary and we got to the point of just accepting the fact that politicians were going to deliver these politically correct, polished speeches that really didn’t mean anything. And then along comes Donald Trump who breaks all those moulds.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Corey Stewart: ‘Trump showed you can be yourself.’ Photograph: Steve Helber/AP

“I don’t think we’re going to get a whole bunch of Trump wannabes going forward in this election cycle, but what you are seeing is that a lot of candidates are going to feel that there is no longer a perfect mould that you need to fit back and you can just be yourself.”

The reality, however, is that Stewart trails Kaine by double digits in opinion polls. And he would not be the first candidate to discover the limitations of Trumpism without Trump. In 2016, the “alt-right” acolyte Paul Nehlen was hammered by the House speaker, Paul Ryan, in a Republican primary in Wisconsin. This year in New York, Michael Grimm, who had been in prison for tax fraud, branded his House primary opponent Dan Donovan “Dishonest Dan” and “Desperate Dan”, but the latter gained Trump’s support and won. In the Georgia governor’s race, the stunt of driving a “deportation bus” could not save Michael Williams from trailing in last.

Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center thinktank in Washington, said: “They’re confusing the woods for the trees. The style of Trump is adapted to a particular type of message for people who feel disrespected and want a guy who will stand up for them. Calling something ‘fake news’ or using nicknames simply won’t work.

“If Trump had done all those things and not had an underlying message, it wouldn’t have been so effective. But the message was very well crafted and for Trump the style and substance mesh nicely. Most Republican candidates don’t get that. They don’t understand Trump’s message so they’re flailing about trying to be Trump.”

Recalling the Austin Powers film starring Mike Myers, Olsen added: “They’re acting like Trump’s Mini-Me but Mini-Me is only funny relative to Me, Dr Evil. I don’t see how far the style is going to advance them minus the substance.”

Even candidates who find Trumpism profitable in Republican primaries could face a bitter wake-up call in November. Stewart in Virginia, Patrick Morrisey in West Virginia and the immigration hardliner Lou Barletta in Pennsylvania are all discovering that a Trump endorsement is not necessarily a golden ticket against Democrats.

Frank Luntz, a pollster and strategist, said: “It makes sense in Republican primaries because that’s the mood of Republican voters. But in the general elections, independent and swing voters won’t take to it.” Noting how DeSantis had surged into the lead in Florida, he warned: “That positive impact stops dead on primary night.”