RICHMOND, Virginia – Conservative U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., is asking for “patience from the people of the 5th District in the coming weeks” as he hopes Tuesday’s final primary vote count will allow him to fend off a challenger endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
Good, who chairs the far-right House Freedom Caucus, currently trails state Sen. John McGuire by just over 300 votes as election officials finalize their vote counts and mail-in ballots continue to arrive.
The Associated Press has not yet called the race for either candidate.
If Good loses, he would be the first House incumbent to lose a primary race this year, with the exception of one race in which two incumbents faced off over redistricting.
As one of the most conservative congressmen in the country, Good may be immune to a primary challenge under normal circumstances. But he earned Trump’s ire when he endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. He returned to Trump after DeSantis dropped out, but Trump supported McGuire and called Good a traitor.
McGuire’s lead of about 300 votes translates into a margin of about half a percentage point out of more than 62,000 votes cast. Once the results are certified, Virginia law allows for a recount if the margin of victory is less than one percentage point. If it is within half a percentage point, the recount may be done at the state’s expense.
In a social media post Wednesday, Good said the race is still very close.
“Provisional ballots and mail-in ballots will also still be counted. We ask for full transparency from the authorities involved,” he said.
Both Good and McGuire are among the Republicans who have raised concerns about election integrity following Trump’s false claims of voter fraud in his 2020 re-election defeat. Good was among more than 100 GOP House members who voted in January 2021 to object to the Electoral College count of states that Trump contested.
In a pre-election telephone rally with Trump on Monday, McGuire appealed to his supporters to give him a margin of victory “too big to manipulate.”
