GOOCHLAND COUNTY, Va. — Rob Reese stewed a good long while after Donald Trump and establishment Republicans teamed up to topple his ultraconservative congressman, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, in the GOP’s mid-June primary election.
“I’ll do a write-in,” said Reese, who is in his late 50s and has sworn off voting for McGuire or the Democrat on the Nov. 5 ballot, Gloria Witt.
As political candidates across the country begin the post-Labor Day sprint toward Election Day, Virginia’s deeply red 5th Congressional District can’t seem to shake off its midsummer, internecine feud. The primary between two hard-right election deniers was uncommonly bitter, nationalized and protracted — forced into double-overtime with a marathon recount on Aug. 1 and a highly unusual, court-ordered review conducted just last week.
Feeling burned by opposing wings of their party — Trump helped push Good out to avenge an endorsement snub alongside GOP establishment forces tired of his obstructionism — Good’s most ardent supporters are not just sulking over his 366-vote loss. They are boiling mad and seeking revenge, with plans to write in Good or to even vote for Witt.
“There’s still this idea that, somehow, things weren’t quite right and there was some sort of injustice,” said David Richards, political science chair at the University of Lynchburg. “They’re not fighting over ideological issues. It’s kind of like two alpha dogs fighting in the yard.”
Write-in campaigns seldom succeed and Good has not endorsed the effort — indeed, he cannot, under Virginia GOP rules, without getting booted from the party for four years.
But the enduring bad blood — playing out in skirmishes at local committee meetings and on social media, in McGuire’s continued public swipes at the incumbent he beat and in Good’s early-bird declaration that he will run again in 2026 — could have consequences for Republicans even if it does not put the seat in play. Although Trump does not need to win Virginia to reclaim the White House, the former president wants to run competitively in the state, if only to force Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign to spend time and money here.
The GOP also needs its activists engaged ahead of next year’s races for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, three statewide offices the party currently holds but could easily see slip away. The Good-McGuire hangover hardly helps on either front.
“If Bob was on the ballot, I’d be working my tail off for him,” said Tim Boyer, 48, a former Campbell County Republican Party chairman, who normally knocks on doors, puts up yard signs and does other “grassroots stuff” on behalf of the whole Republican ticket.
Not this year.
“I am as unmotivated as I ever have been in my life,” said Boyer. He added that he definitely will not vote for McGuire and might not vote for Trump, either, upset that the former president undermined Good and watered down the national party platform on issues where Good never flinched, abortion and same-sex marriage.
As a conservative who describes himself as “to the right of Jesse Helms,” Boyer said, “there’s nothing in November for me.”
Wary that hard feelings could hamper the whole ticket, Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) plans to lead a five-stop “unity tour” with McGuire across the 5th District on Monday. They will spend the day courting voters, starting on the southern edge on the North Carolina border, and ending the day in Amherst County, near Lynchburg.
“I do believe there are people who are devoted to Bob and who will stay with him regardless, but I think the vast majority know that we have a nominee who’s going to be a conservative federal legislator, and they can support him with peace of mind,” said Rich Anderson, chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, who intends to take part in the tour.
Neither side is working particularly hard to reinforce that message of harmony.
McGuire consultant Sean Brown dismissed the notion that Good still has formidable sway after losing his primary.
“Bob who?” Brown wrote in a text message to The Washington Post. “John is focused on delivering Virginia for Trump and ensuring a conservative majority in the house and senate.”
Good declined to comment through his campaign manager, Diana Shores.
“If President Trump is going to win Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, he is going to need all the Republicans pulling in the same direction,” said Shores, speaking in her capacity as chairwoman of Prince Edward County’s GOP committee, not on Good’s behalf. “It is incumbent upon Senator McGuire to give voters a reason to vote for him and to rally the Republican base.”
Good rose to national prominence over two terms in Congress as an unyielding social and fiscal conservative willing to blow up bipartisan deals on foreign aid, risk government shutdowns and oust then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from the House speakership. That made him enemies in Washington, where even some conservative Republicans feared he was too uncompromising. But his actions generally played well back home, where disrupting D.C. is considered a virtue.
A graduate and fundraiser at Liberty University, Good seemed to have a strong footing going into his reelection bid in a district with the evangelical institution at its cultural core. He first won the seat in 2020 after taking on Republican incumbent Denver Riggleman, who had enraged conservatives by presiding over a same-sex wedding.
But Good drew Trump’s wrath and a primary challenge from McGuire by endorsing Florida Gov Ron DeSantis (R) over Trump for president in May 2023. Good’s rationale — shared in a secretly recorded conversation that was later used in an attack ad against him — was that the Florida governor was a more reliable conservative than Trump on abortion and guns.
McGuire, a former Navy SEAL who lines up with Good in virtually all matters of policy, attacked the congressman as being insufficiently loyal to Trump. The former president lambasted Good as a backstabber. He endorsed McGuire, made a TV ad for him and headlined his tele-rally the eve of the primary. Meanwhile, establishment forces jumped into the fray, out to avenge McCarthy’s ouster by pouring millions into anti-Good ads.
Even with that gusher of national money and attention, the outcome was too close to call on June 18. McGuire nevertheless claimed victory that night. He and Good publicly clashed in the following weeks and months as the margin barely moved. State-certified results in early July put McGuire ahead by 374 votes out of 62,792 cast. On the eve of the Aug. 1 recount that trimmed McGuire’s lead to 370, McGuire was on Facebook attacking “backstabbing trash talker Bob Good.”
Last week, a three-judge recount court summoned officials from a handful of localities that had minor discrepancies in the vote totals they reported after the recount to again review their tallies. The review, conducted in Goochland Circuit Court’s antebellum courthouse, added four more votes to Good’s total.
After the results confirmed his loss, Good issued a statement that made no mention of the nominee but claimed a small victory for himself: The judges agreed to reduce Good’s recount tab from about $104,000 to $89,000.
McGuire took to Facebook to again claim victory and suggest that the unusual review stemmed from “primary recount shenanigans” perpetrated by Good. After that dig, McGuire wrapped up with: “We must unite!”
The message fell flat with Good allies such as Alexandra Griffeth, 37, a graduate student from Lynchburg. She has kept a Bob Good bumper magnet affixed to her Jeep Renegade as a “stick-it-in-their-eye kind of thing.” She hopes to send a message to party leaders by writing in Good: “Hey, you can’t just keep running over your conservative vote.”
In a district that last sent a Democrat to Washington in 2008, when enthusiasm for Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign ran high, another Republican victory in November seems almost assured.
Mark Plummer, an owner of a roofing company from Goochland County, said he is also thinking of voting for Witt, rather than writing in Good, because he thinks that’s the surer way to defeat McGuire. Plummer, 65, has voted in every election since he turned 18. A vote for Witt would be his first for a Democrat.
“Even though I’m a die-hard, staunch Republican, I will not vote for John McGuire,” said Plummer.
Riggleman, the former congressman, also plans to vote for Witt despite policy differences with her. He broke with his party years ago over Trump’s false claims of 2020 election fraud, which Good and McGuire echoed.
“It shows you how far down the rabbit hole Virginia’s 5th has gone,” Riggleman said. “It’s our duty to push back against people that have that very, very frayed tether to reality.”
Witt, who is retired from the nuclear energy company Framatome, sees an opening in the Republican rift even as she tries to stay above the fray. She is pitching herself as a bipartisan problem-solver untainted by MAGA infighting and focused on “kitchen-table” issues such as career technical education.
But national Democrats have not come through with the big money they lavished on the district four years ago, which allowed Democrat Cameron Webb to outspend Good $5.8 million to $1.3 million. Webb still lost by five points.
Witt had raised $58,000 and had $36,000 in cash heading into July, according to the latest fundraising reports. McGuire had raised $1.4 million, but after the fierce primary, he had just less than $116,000 in the bank.
“I do believe I have a shot,” Witt said, putting her faith in positive energy and the “butterfly effect,” meaning the small but impactful work of many volunteers. She is also hoping the ongoing GOP battle will send more voters her way.
“Hey, the tent is large. Come on in,” she said. “I’m all about an inclusive America.”
