A host of congressional incumbents have faced significant challenges this year, but so far no one has lost. That said, there’s a good chance that Rep. Bob Good will be the exception.
Last week was primary day for the Virginia Republican, and while MSNBC and NBC News still consider his race against Sen. John McGuire too close to call, the challenger is now ahead by 373 votes. As Politico noted, “That will be difficult (but not impossible) for Good to make up for.”
The far-right incumbent party does not seem eager to accept defeat gracefully. Rather, as my MSNBC colleague Ja’han Jones explained, Good has responded to the latest developments in his race with outlandish conspiracy theories, lawsuit threats, demands for a “do-over” election in the city of Lynchburg, and promises to blocking certification of election results he doesn’t like.
Axios reported that the current chairman of the House Freedom Caucus is not receiving much support from his GOP colleagues, at least so far. The article even noted that Good’s attempts to cast doubt on his possible defeat “are being met with eye-rolls by many of his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives.”
Another House Republican told Axios, “Bob Good is a sore loser.”
Other GOP members were willing to go on the record. Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin said Good was “grasping at straws to save his political career.” Rep. Mike Lawler said of Good: “What a loser.” Representative John Duarte of California concluded: “Bob Good has lost. It’s very easy.”
On the face of it, these reactions are healthy and, to some extent, refreshing. Here we have a group of Republicans in the House of Representatives — some from ruby red districts, others from districts that voted Democratic in 2020 — looking at the election results and discounting dubious talk of irregularities. These GOP members have heard Good’s complaints, considered his conspiracy theories, and concluded that believing the available evidence is a smart move.
And yet it strikes me that it wasn’t that long ago that election results also showed that a certain former president also lost. Like Good, he responded with outlandish conspiracy theories, lawsuits, demands for a “do-over” election, and attempts to block the certification of election results he didn’t like.
Rather than “rolling their eyes,” Republicans in the House of Representatives were more than happy to embrace Donald Trump’s “big lie” as fundamental to the party’s vision.
Any chance GOP members will want to explain the difference? Why is Good a “sore loser” while the former president is the party’s presumptive nominee?
Do Republicans in Congress realize that by validating Trump’s indefensible plans, they have emboldened members like Good, among others, to respond similarly to election results they disapprove of?
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
