Update 1:45 p.m. June 19: McGuire’s lead has shrunk from 327 to 309 votes, according to Virginia Department of Elections data. We will continue to post updates as they’re available.
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One of the most watched and most expensive primary battles nationwide this year remained too close to call by the end of Tuesday’s election night.
In Virginia’s heavily Republican 5th Congressional District, Rep. Bob Good, R-Campbell County and the chairman of the powerful House Freedom Caucus, faced a challenge from state Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland County, who had made his campaign a referendum on which candidate is a more loyal supporter of former President Donald Trump.
But as all the other nomination contests statewide had been decided throughout the evening, the race between Good and the Trump-backed McGuire continued to hang in the air with the two candidates trading leads — sometimes just in the single digits — as results from different polling locations kept trickling in.
By 11:10 p.m., McGuire had a slight edge over Good with 50.26% to 49.74% of the vote — a margin of 327 out of a total of 62,495 votes cast, with all precincts reporting, according to unofficial numbers by the Virginia Department of Elections.
But without all early and mail-in votes being included, his lead wasn’t decisive enough to put an end to this viciously fought nomination contest that began last November, when the former Navy SEAL announced his challenge just days after winning a state Senate seat. 
All of the 1,532 early votes yet to be counted are from localities where Good performed well, including 804 votes in Fluvanna County, where Good took 55.85% of the vote, and 728 in Bedford County, where the incumbent won with 58.55% of the vote. To make up the difference, Good would need more than 60% of those uncounted votes.
“With the race this close, we’re not going to find out anytime soon. It could be tomorrow or even later in the week before we know. At this point a recount looks likely,” David Richards, a political science professor at the University of Lynchburg, said late Tuesday.
Virginia does not have an automatic recount law, but if the difference is less than 1% of the vote either candidate may request a recount within 10 days after certification. By 11:20 p.m., McGuire was up by 0.52%.
Richards said that the close contest shows that a Trump endorsement still has the ability to move the needle.
“His endorsement seems to have taken McGuire from virtually unknown to getting about half the vote tonight, which is pretty remarkable. Without Trump’s approval McGuire would have been a footnote tonight. We’re in for a long night and possibly a long week to sort out this election.”
The eventual winner of the primary will face Gloria Witt, the Democratic nominee, in the Nov. 5 general election.
McGuire had banked on his strategy to make this primary election about his unwavering loyalty to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and he continued to do so even after Trump’s recent conviction in New York City on 34 counts of falsifying business records to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
Good had drawn Trump’s ire after endorsing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president a year ago. But despite his return to the Make America Great Again fold after DeSantis ended his campaign in January, and the continued support from most elected party officials in the district, the incumbent found himself trying to convince a majority of Republican voters that he deserved a third term on Capitol Hill.
On the campaign trail, McGuire has accused Good of “hating Trump” and being a “Never-Trumper” and a “RINO” — a derogatory moniker for “Republican In Name Only” — who is working to help Democrats. He has also alleged that the incumbent has been a divisive politician whose positions in Congress, including his key role in ousting former Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year, have damaged the Republican brand.
Last month, Trump formally endorsed McGuire, and he held a tele-rally for the candidate Monday evening.
“Bob Good is BAD FOR VIRGINIA, AND BAD FOR THE USA,” the former president 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.”
McGuire also collected endorsements from other MAGA celebrities, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the controversial congresswoman and conspiracy theorist from Georgia who joined him on the campaign trail in the 5th District earlier this month; Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who served as the secretary of interior in the previous administration; and former Trump attorney and New York City Mayor Rudy Guliani.
Good’s list of prominent supporters was much longer, boasting prominent names such as Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.; Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.; Byron Donalds, R-Fla.; and Scott Perry, R-Pa.; as well as former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and retired Gen. Michael Flynn, a former national security adviser in the Trump administration.
Both candidates benefited from record-breaking campaign contributions from outside 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.
