Within minutes of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ announcement Sunday that he would end his 2024 presidential bid, Rep. Bob Good, R-Campbell County, turned to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, to endorse former President Donald Trump, the current frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
“It is my privilege to provide my complete and total endorsement for Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States. President Trump was the greatest President of my lifetime, and we need him to reinstate the policies that were working so well for America,” Good wrote.
Initially, DeSantis had vowed to stay in the race until at least the South Carolina primary on Feb. 24. But the suspension of his campaign two days before the primary in New Hampshire provided Good with an easy way out of a significant political predicament.
Despite his credentials as a conservative hardliner and his recent election as the chairman of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, Good faces a primary challenge from state Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland County, whose main campaign platform is Good’s endorsement of DeSantis back in May, which the senator alleges is a betrayal of the former president that warrants Good’s ouster.
McGuire, a former state delegate who announced his congressional bid just days after being elected to represent Virginia’s 10th Senate District, has repeatedly attacked Good as a “never-Trumper” and “RINO,” a conservative epithet for Republican In Name Only.
And last week, Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita told Cardinal News in no uncertain terms that Good had lost the former president’s support over his defection to DeSantis. “Bob Good won’t be electable when we get done with him,” LaCivita said at the time.
Many Republicans in the 5th District expressed their frustration with the ambitious McGuire, who at a GOP convention last May had vowed to not challenge Good and to focus instead on his four-year term in the state Senate. But Good’s campaign has reason for concern over a possible Trump endorsement of McGuire in a Republican-leaning district where the former president won in both 2016 and 2020 with 53% of the vote.
Good, who has represented Virginia’s 5th Congressional District since 2021, said in an interview earlier this month that he “supported President Trump in 2016 and in 2020,” and that he would “enthusiastically support President Trump” if he was the nominee again, but he rejected calls to switch his endorsement while DeSantis was still in the race.
While a Trump endorsement of McGuire is still a possibility, the end of the DeSantis campaign gave Good a chance to back Trump while saving face, and the Republican congressman seized the opportunity, no doubt hoping to win back supporters in his district that he might have lost over his backing of the Floridian.
McGuire, who one day after his victory in the Senate race was the first Virginia lawmaker to endorse Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, in a statement Sunday warned Republican voters to not trust the incumbent congressman.
“Bob Good has been a Never Trumper since Day 1 and is going around telling people that Trump isn’t pro-life and can’t win. He’s wrong — Trump will save America,” McGuire said. “Bob Good has come groveling back to Trump in order to save his own hide — friends, don’t trust him. He’ll stab Trump in the back again the first chance he gets. Never Trumper Bob Good is only good for Joe Biden, not for the patriots of Virginia’s 5th Congressional District.”