House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good, Republican of Virginia, has lost his recount, a Virginia court upheld Thursday, deepening his narrow defeat to Republican Sen. John McGuire.
The recount confirms that McGuire defeated Good, after McGuire initially defeated Good by just 374 votes in the June primary in Virginia’s 5th District.
Good had said he would resign as chairman of the far-right Freedom Caucus if he did not win the recount.
The recount officially ends the race, making Good the first Republican incumbent in the House of Representatives to lose to a challenger in this year’s primary. Good faced a broad coalition of GOP opposition, including former President Donald Trump and former chairman Kevin McCarthy from California.
Trump jumped into the race shortly before the June 18 primary by endorsing McGuire, who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, attack and walked onto the U.S. Capitol grounds, saying, “We felt like we were being betrayed.”
McGuire, in an interview with NBC News shortly before the primaries, declined to make a commitment to certifying the results of the 2024 presidential election, saying he would have to “wait and see what happens.”
“I can understand why people don’t have confidence in elections,” he added.
Good drew Trump’s ire with his support for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during the presidential primary, but his subsequent support for Trump was not enough to win him over to Trump.
Trump appeared in a TV ad and held a tele-rally for McGuire ahead of the primaries, telling supporters, “John is running against Bob Good, who is not good. Despite his name, he is very bad for Virginia.”
McGuire, a former Navy SEAL whose campaign slogan was “We Can Do Better Than Right,” previously told NBC News that Trump’s support was helpful.
“A lot of people have said to me, ‘I don’t know anything about you, I’ve never met you, but if Trump supports you, I’ve got you,'” McGuire said. “I believe that Trump, with everything he’s been through, has earned the right to make the decisions and pick his team.”
McCarthy also played a role in the race, as he took on the handful of Republicans who had ousted him from Congress late last year.
Outside groups tied to McCarthy allies and GOP establishment donors blanketed the district’s airwaves, spending $6.9 million against Good, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. And while Good also had support from outside groups that helped match that spending, McGuire also spent far more on ads than Good, which helped get his message across the sprawling district.
McGuire acknowledged that McCarthy had given him advice, noting that he had spoken to McCarthy on the phone a few times. And he pointed to the vote to oust McCarthy as evidence that Good was not focused on helping his party or the district.
“If you’re on the Republican team and you’re on the Democratic team to take out the Republican team, you’re not on the Republican team,” McGuire said. “Bob’s on the Bob Good team.”
McGuire is expected to win in November, given the 5th District’s Republican bias. Trump won the district by 8 percentage points in 2020, according to Daily Kos Elections calculations.
Good joins two other members of Congress who failed to advance beyond their primaries this year. Rep. Jerry Carl lost to another incumbent, Rep. Barry Moore, in an Alabama GOP primary fueled by district redistricting. And Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a member of the “bunch” of progressive lawmakers of color and an outspoken critic of Israel, lost to Westchester County Executive George Latimer in a New York Democratic primary.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
