McGuire claims victory in 5th district GOP primary, recount still possible
(Danville) — We’ll have to wait a bit longer to find out who will carry the GOP banner in this fall’s Fifth District Congressional race, but the current race leader is claiming victory.
The final Election Night totals gave first-term State Senator John McGuire of Goochland County a 309-vote edge over incumbent Congressman Bob Good of Lynchburg. That is out of more than 62,000 votes that had been counted. That’s a half-a-percentage-point difference.
“There are still a few votes left to count, but it’s clear that all paths end with a victory,” McGuire said in a statement.
The race went national when it got the attention of former President and current GOP Presidential front-runner Donald Trump. He endorsed McGuire, claiming that Good “backstabbed” him by originally endorsing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the Presidential race. Good switched to Trump after DeSantis dropped out of the race.
“My life is a testament to the fact that America is the greatest country on this planet and I’m so honored to have the chance to serve her again,” said McGuire.
Locally, 62% of primary voters in Danville supported McGuire. He got 54% of the vote in Pittsylvania County.
With the race still up in the air, Good is promising to make sure every last vote is counted. “We implemented the best early voting operation that the 5th District has ever seen, and we are still waiting for the results of mail-in ballots and provisional ballots. We are doing what we can to ensure we have teams of observers and legal counsel to ensure all the votes are properly counted in the coming days.”
Good is trying to avoid becoming the first member of Congress to lose their primary in the 2024 cycle. In terms of total spending, this was the third-most expensive primary of this election cycle with well over ten million dollars spent, most of it coming from outside of the district.
The race was also one of the closest in recent memory. Neither candidate got more than 65% of the vote in any city or county. Among the 24 localities in the district, Good and McGuire each led in 12.
The next step are canvasses at each polling place to confirm totals and make sure there were no issues. Canvasses usually start on the day after an election. But in Pittsylvania County and Danville, Wednesday is the Juneteenth holiday. Canvasses in the city and county will begin Thursday.
Those canvasses will examine about 200 provisional ballots in the Fifth District that have yet to be counted. Those are votes that were cast on Election Day but were not yet added to the total because of people voting in the wrong precinct, their name not showing up in the poll books, or showing up with no identification. Those votes will be added in during the canvass, if they are eligible.
Also yet to be counted are mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Tuesday. They can show up as late as Friday. It is not known how many will come in, but officials say it usually amounts to only a handful.
The canvasses have to be completed by Monday. That’s when local registrars will send their totals to the State Board of Elections. They will then meet on July second to certify the totals.
If the final margin of victory is within one percent, the losing candidate can request a recount within ten days. There are no automatic recounts in Virginia. Recounts are done at public expense if the margin is within a half of a percentage point. The candidate must pay if its between a half and a full-percent. But if the recount changes the outcome, the recount is paid for with tax dollars.