VA-05: Politico's Olivia Beavers reports that Del. John McGuire, who is unopposed in Tuesday's race for a state Senate seat, already plans to seek another promotion by challenging far-right Rep. Bob Good for the GOP nod. There's no word from McGuire, but Beavers wrote Friday that her sources anticipate he'll launch "in the coming weeks." Donald Trump carried the 5th District, which includes Charlottesville and western Southside Virginia, 53-45.
The Old Dominion allows parties to decide if they want to pick their nominees through a traditional party primary, a convention, or a party-run "firehouse primary," and it remains to be seen what method the GOP will utilize next year. Good, though, predicted to Beavers, "I think Virginia is moving to all primaries."
Good himself first won the GOP nod when he successfully challenged one-term Rep. Denver Riggleman, who'd riled the party base after he officiated a same-sex wedding between two of his former campaign volunteers, at the convention. McGuire, who is a Navy SEAL veteran, also ran for Congress that year in the old 7th District, but his own convention didn't go so well: Fellow Del. Nick Freitas beat McGuire 56-44 on the third ballot months before losing the general election to Democratic incumbent Abigail Spanberger.
McGuire initially launched another bid for the 7th, but he dropped out last year after redistricting scrambled the map. Good, for his part, easily won a second term, and he's spent much of it alienating some of his party's most powerful leaders. The congressman voted against Kevin McCarthy in each round of the marathon January speakership election before finally flipping to "present" for the final ballot, and he was one of the eight Republicans who deposed the speaker last month. Good also endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over Donald Trump in May.
Beavers writes that, while there's no indication that McGuire is working with Trump and McCarthy's camps, both men may see him as a vehicle to take down a disloyal congressman whose colleagues have nicknamed him "Bob Bad." (Original, we know). McCarthy, who still retains well-funded allies, responded to Politico's questions about whether he'd intervene in the nomination fight by saying, "I don’t know. I have to study all these. Prior to being the speaker, I couldn't get engaged in races. But I'm a free agent now."
Good ended September with only $170,000 in the bank, but he may get some serious outside help. The Club for Growth, which is currently on the outs with Trump, declared in July it would aid the Republicans who'd voted against McCarthy at the start of the year.