The Republican primaries in Virginia have become a haven for schoolyard bully tactics as candidates unleash personal attacks on each other in ways and to a degree seldom seen in American politics.

One candidate blazing that trail is Senate hopeful and President Donald Trump’s former state campaign chairman Corey Stewart.

Politics has always been a “blood sport,” Stewart told The Associated Press.

But Trump’s 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton after a vicious campaign in which he called her a “nasty woman” was enough to show Stewart that voters respect candidates who go full throttle at their opponents and don’t only deploy surrogates to go on the attack.

“People know that you’re going to attack your opponent,” Stewart said. “My feeling is you should just own it.”