(Goochland County, Va.) — John McGuire has officially won the Republican nomination for this year’s Fifth District Congressional race.
A Goochland County judge announced the results of a recount Thursday evening. The recount was requested by current Fifth District Congressman Bob Good.
Earlier this month, the Virginia State Board of Elections certified McGuire as the winner in a June 18th GOP primary by a 374-vote margin out of more than 62,000 votes cast. Good requested a recount.
Elections officials in all of the counties that make up the sprawling Fifth District replayed the primary on Thursday, then took the votes to Goochland County for confirmation.
The recount shows McGuire with 31,586 votes to Good’s 31,216. That is a
370-vote margin, a difference of four votes from the previous tally.
Good, who chairs the House Freedom Caucus, was the first Congressional incumbent to lose their party’s nomination during this election cycle. Since the primary there have been two other Congressional incumbents “primaried.”
McGuire is a first-term State Senator from Goochland County. Former President Donald Trump took an already-intense fight to the next level in May when he endorsed McGuire. He called Good a backstabber for his initial support of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in this year’s Presidential nomination battle. DeSantis has since left the race and Good immediately endorsed Trump. Trump called that, “too little, too late.”
The Virginia Public Access Project reports well over ten million dollars in spending on this race from “Independent Expenditures.”
“I want to thank the more than 31,000 voters of the 5th District who voted for me in the June 18 primary, and the thousands who volunteered, contributed, prayed, and supported my re-election campaign,” Good wrote in a statement Thursday night. “While I am disappointed in the ultimate outcome, it has been my distinct honor to serve as the congressional representative for Virginia’s 5th District over the past 3.5 years.”
Because the margin of victory was more than a half-a-percent, State law required Good to pay for the recount. He estimates the cost at around $100,000.
“I will continue to serve my constituents to the best of my ability over the remaining 5 months of my term, and I will continue to fight for the principles and values upon which our nation was founded,” Good said.
McGuire will take on Democratic nominee Gloria Tinsley Witt in the November election. “Folks in the 5th District can rest assured that should they elect me in November, they will have an effective fighter in Congress who will get the job done,” McGuire said in a Thursday statement.
