In recent months, quite a few congressional Republicans have faced primary challenges, though in every instance, the GOP incumbents have prevailed.
That is, except for Rep. Bob Good, whose apparent primary defeat in Virginia was certified by the state elections board yesterday. NBC News reported:
The results from last month’s GOP primary in Virginia’s 5th District show state Sen. John McGuire ahead of Good, who faced opposition from former President Donald Trump and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., by just 374 votes, or less than 1 percentage point. That puts the race within the margin that allows a candidate to request a recount. But the margin is wide enough that Good would have to cover the cost of a recount himself, rather than the state.
Good, the chair of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, has already made clear that he will, in fact, pursue a recount.
As for the larger context, in recent years, a variety of congressional Republican incumbents have come up short in primary races because they lost the backing of the GOP’s rabid far-right base. Good’s apparent defeat is something altogether different.
As regular readers know, the GOP lawmaker dismissed the pandemic as a “phony“ crisis, championed a baseless impeachment crusade against President Joe Biden, and helped take the lead in pushing a debt ceiling crisis. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank went so far to refer to Good as a “legislative terrorist.”
There was, in other words, no reason for the party’s base to kick Good out. His allegiance to far-right orthodoxy has never been in doubt.
So why is his congressional career coming to an apparent end? There are a few angles to this story that are worth keeping in mind.
First, Good played a prominent role in ousting then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which generated some ill will within the party. Indeed, the Californian still has a political operation of sorts, and it was turned against the Virginian.
Second, Good’s colleagues have come to see him as something of a joke: Even one of his Freedom Caucus colleagues recently conceded that Good is not a serious policymaker. Another GOP member predicted a few weeks ago, “The only Republican incumbent that loses this cycle is going to be Bob Good. And he won’t lose because of policy, but because of tactics and because his colleagues overwhelmingly do not trust or respect him.”
But perhaps most importantly, the Virginia Republican endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over Donald Trump in the GOP’s presidential primary — at which point some of his ostensible allies labeled him a “disloyal MAGA traitor.”
It didn’t take long for Good to acknowledge his political difficulties, and in January, he endorsed Trump. The Virginian was also one of the many congressional Republicans to travel to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse to show his support for the former president during his recent criminal trial.
But Trump concluded that the gestures were “too late,” adding, “The damage had been done!”
In late March, The Washington Post quoted John Fredericks, a conservative Virginia radio show host who’s been part of Trumpworld for years, who said Good’s fate was in the former president's hands.
“If Trump endorses McGuire, McGuire is going to win,” Fredericks said. Two months later, Trump endorsed McGuire, who appears to have won.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.