GOOCHLAND, Va. – For Rep. Bob Good, Tuesday’s primary is about much more than the next member of Congress to represent Virginia’s 5th District.
“The nation is watching,” the Virginia Republican told several dozen supporters gathered outside the county’s historic courthouse on a balmy Friday evening. He warned that this race is about the “swamp of the DC establishment wanting to buy your seat.”
Good, chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, told supporters he is a former chairman Kevin McCarthy‘s top target as McCarthy looks to take down the small group of Republicans who ousted him late last year. McCarthy’s first attempt failed last week when Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina won her primary.
But McCarthy is just one player facing Good in a race in which he could become the first member of Congress to lose to a primary challenger this year. There is also the most important support in Republican politics working against him: the former president Donald Trump.
Trump late last month endorsed Good’s opponent, state Sen. John McGuire, a former Navy SEAL and “Stop the Steal” rally participant. The former president made a veiled reference to Good supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during the presidential primaries, writing on social media that Good “constantly attacked and fought me until recently.”
Trump is holding a tele-rally for McGuire on Monday night and he appeared in a 15-second TV ad to boost McGuire. His support could sway some voters who were skeptical of Good in the deep-red district, which stretches from the suburbs of Richmond to the state’s southern border.
“I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘I don’t know about you, it’s never been mentioned before, but Trump supports you, I got you,’” McGuire told NBC News.
Tuesday’s race marks the first time Good will face a traditional primary. In 2020, Good ousted then-Rep. Denver Riggleman, who also received Trump’s endorsement, at a drive-through convention amid the Covid pandemic.
“I mean [Good] was for Trump, against Trump, for Trump, against Trump,” McGuire supporter Bruce Jaggard, a 76-year-old retiree, said Friday at the “Village Vibe” concert in neighboring Powhatan.
“You never know where he stands,” Jaggard said. “And that bothers me.”
The anti-Good coalition
Good is clearly sensitive to the fact that Trump is supporting his opponent. He told NBC News before a brief interview that everyone already knows Trump supported his opponent — as if to tone down any questions about that.
Good stated that he “backed President Trump” and added, “I’m sure the president will support me on June 19th after we win.”
The delicate dynamics surrounding Trump were on display at Good’s event, when the congressman referred to “someone” who promised to make him “unelectable.” That person was likely Trump’s top adviser, Chris LaCivita, who told a local representative in Virginia in January, “Bob Good won’t be electable when we’re done with him.”
But Trump and McCarthy are part of a broad coalition trying to take down Good, which also includes some of his own Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who was dismissed from the Freedom Caucus last summer, has been a major critic of Good. At least five other Republican lawmakers have donated to McGuire’s campaign. One House Republican Party member chartered a bus to the 5th District from Washington on Saturday to help fellow lawmakers campaign for the challenger.
And even a member of Good’s own Freedom Caucus, Rep. Warren Davidson, broke ranks Sunday to support McGuire, calling for “reinforcements to make America great again.”
But just as members are pushing back against Good, some of the Freedom Caucus’ most outspoken members have been making visits to the district on their colleague’s behalf.
Defending Main Street, a super PAC that backs more centrist Republicans, also made the rare move to target an incumbent, boosting McGuire in the race.
“He would support Donald Trump and his initiatives to build the wall and control immigration,” Sarah Chamberlain, chair of the Republican Main Street Partnership, recently told NBC News. “These are all things that Bob Good didn’t do.”
Chamberlain said Good’s vote to oust McCarthy prompted the group to dig into his record, and they decided McGuire would be a better fit for the district. Chamberlain said they discussed McGuire’s actions with him on Jan. 6, 2021, noting he did not enter the Capitol that day.
“We certainly didn’t blame him for that,” she said.
“Yes, I went there,” McGuire said of his visit to both Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally and the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6. “We felt like we were being cheated.”
McGuire’s openness to conspiracy theories was evident in other parts of the interview, including when he called the Covid-19 pandemic “the plan-demic” – promoting a conspiracy theory that the pandemic, which originated in China and spread worldwide spread, a ploy was to be able to change voting rules around drop boxes and voting by mail in the US. There is no evidence for that.
McGuire would not promise to certify the results of the 2024 election if he were elected to Congress. He said he would “have to see what happens” and added at another point: “I can understand why people don’t trust elections.”
The McCarthy Factor
McCarthy allies have blanketed the Virginia airwaves ahead of Tuesday’s vote. Outside groups tied to the former speaker spent $6.9 million on ads during the race, according to the ad tracking company AdImpact, while Good has gotten a boost from outside groups tied to Club for Growth Action, the House Freedom Caucus and Republican Senator Rand Paul. of Kentucky.
McGuire said he and McCarthy have discussed this primary battle, although McGuire told NBC News he does not know the former speaker.
“About a month ago I shook his hand” at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., McGuire said. “He was nice to me.” He added that they also had telephone contact a few times during the course of this race.
“Advice, like, ‘Hey, am I doing the right thing?’” McGuire said, describing the conversations with McCarthy. “And he says, ‘Keep charging.’ It’s more of a pep talk. But never a strategy or anything. I think I should have asked him that, but I didn’t.”
Good’s allies have framed the race as McCarthy and the Washington establishment trying to take down the party’s far-right conservative wing, with some colleagues from Good’s Freedom Caucus joining him on the campaign trail on Friday.
“This is a step not to simply crush Bob Good as chairman. This is a move to crush the Freedom Caucus,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told the fifty or so Virginians gathered. Biggs took a jab at the former speaker, saying the race is “backed by a very bitter, upset person who wants to be relevant.”
While it has brought money and attention to the race, it is not clear how much the vote to impeach McCarthy will actually resonate with voters.
“The outcome will be determined by the candidates, their organization and Donald Trump,” said Zack Roday, a GOP strategist with experience in Virginia who is not involved in the race.
But McCarthy’s impeachment mattered to at least some voters on either side of the primary.
A woman at the Powhatan concert, who declined to share her name, said McCarthy’s vote played a role in her decision to support McGuire.
“The timing was terrible,” she said, holding a “John McGuire: Trump Approved” sign on the lawn, leaning against her lawn chair. “And all it did was feed off the Democrats: Oh, these Republicans can’t get their act together.”
Karen Piscarz, a retiree from Goochland who was also at the Friday concert, said it “absolutely” influenced her decision to support Good.
“I liked that he stuck his neck out when everyone said, ‘Why are you doing that?’ And I think [House Speaker] Mike Johnson makes a big difference,” she said.
“It’s important for people to pay attention,” longtime supporter Dale Agnew said of the incumbent president’s vote against McCarthy. “Not everyone is paying attention.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
