Democracy Dies in Darkness

GOP primary battle turns Va.’s 5th District into a political Tilt-a-Whirl

Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) and Del. John McGuire (R-Goochland) are denouncing each other as RINOs — Republicans in name only.

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Updated May 16, 2024 at 11:17 a.m. EDT|Published May 16, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. EDT
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), left, and Virginia Del. John McGuire (R-Goochland) are facing off for the GOP primary in the state's 5th District. (Bill O'Leary / Ryan M. Kelly/The Washington Post)
11 min

MINERAL, Va. — Republican John McGuire took his upstart bid for Congress to a spring carnival here that mixed small-town charm with MAGA fervor, where children who mustered a bell-ringing whack in the strongman game went home with toy assault weapons.

Buttonholing voters on the midway in this red central Virginia town one recent Friday night, the Virginia state senator made a pro-Trump, anti-establishment pitch fit for an ordinary GOP primary fight, the kind with a moderate incumbent challenged from the right. But the Republican whom McGuire wants to oust in the June 18 primary is Rep. Bob Good, chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.