Bob Good, who represented Virginia’s 5th Congressional District for two terms, said Friday that he planned to decide in the coming weeks if he will challenge Rep. John McGuire for the seat Good lost to the now-freshman Congressman in a bitter 2024 primary that threatened to tear the district’s Republican Party apart.
“My wife and I are praying about our options for 2026, and we’ll be making a decision in the weeks ahead,” he said, when asked if he plans to run again at the end of a phone interview about a different topic.
Good had lost his 2024 reelection bid and a post-election recount in a close primary to fellow Republican Rep. John McGuire of Goochland County. McGuire won by a margin of 366 votes out of 62,802 cast.
The bad blood between Good, McGuire
McGuire, of Goochland, had announced his intention to challenge Good just days after winning the state’s 10th District Senate seat in November 2023. He made his campaign in the heavily Republican district — which President Donald Trump won with 53% of the vote in both 2016 and 2020 — a referendum on which candidate was a more loyal supporter of the then-former president.
Good had endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid in May 2023, which drew the ire of Trump. A staunch supporter of everything MAGA who attended the “Stop the Steal” rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, McGuire was the first Virginia lawmaker to openly back Trump’s third White House run last fall.
Good endorsed Trump within minutes of DeSantis’ announcement that he had suspended his campaign in January 2024, but that did not appease the then-former president. Trump formally endorsed McGuire in late May 2024 and held a telerally for the candidate on the eve of the June primary election.
“Bob Good is BAD FOR VIRGINIA, AND BAD FOR THE USA,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform Truth Social. “He turned his back on our incredible movement, and was constantly attacking and fighting me until recently, when he gave a warm and ‘loving’ Endorsement — But really, it was too late. The damage had been done.”
Many Republicans in the 5th District remained loyal to Good, regardless of Trump’s endorsement of his opponent. In an unprecedented move, 25 GOP officials urged the presidential nominee in an open letter two weeks before the election to rethink his endorsement of McGuire and to instead consider backing the incumbent.
During his primary campaign, McGuire accused Good of “hating Trump” and being a “Never-Trumper.” Good accused McGuire of being a “RINO” — a derogatory moniker for “Republican In Name Only” — who was working to help Democrats. McGuire had alleged that the incumbent was a divisive politician whose positions in Congress, including his key role in former Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster in October 2023, had damaged the party’s brand.
Both candidates benefited from record-breaking campaign contributions from outside of Virginia, making the primary the second-most expensive race nationwide, with a total of more than $10 million spent, according to data collected by ProPublica, a nonprofit organization from New York dedicated to investigative journalism.
A heated, close primary that led to a recount
Once the dust settled and the ballots had been counted, McGuire’s lead over Good was 0.6%, which put the incumbent within the 1% margin that allowed him to request a recount at his campaign’s expense, but above the 0.5% threshold that would have required localities to pay for it.
Ultimately, the recount netted four votes for Good, which slimmed the margin down from 370 to 366, but it did not change the outcome of the election, and McGuire’s win was affirmed.
The Goochland Circuit Court, where the recount took place, considered a motion filed by Good that claimed several counties in Virginia’s 5th District had inaccurately billed him certain expenses for the process. Those objections ranged from the cost for office supplies to fees to cover payments to deputies and other officials who did work associated with the recount.
The court honored some of Good’s objections and reduced his bill from $104,000 to $88,918.
Good, a Republican from Farmville, served two terms in Congress. He served as chairman for the powerful House Freedom Caucus.
He had filed the necessary paperwork to keep his campaign account open after his loss in 2024, which raised speculation regarding his intentions for 2026. In August, he told the host of the Schilling Show, a right-wing podcast based in Charlottesville, that he filed the paperwork to “keep his options open.”
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