Rep. Bob Good’s attempt to overturn his primary loss in Virginia’ 5th Congressional District ended late on Thursday evening after a recount upheld his GOP opponent’s narrow victory.
After the three-panel recount court reviewed the election returns that election officials from 24 localities had delivered to the Goochland County Circuit Court, Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland County, still led Good by a margin of 370 votes out of a total of 62,802 cast — four fewer than on election night, according to the Associated Press and Virginia Public Media. 
“They said I had a 1% chance and that it was tough to beat an incumbent,” McGuire said in a brief phone interview late Thursday night. “It was a team effort, and thank God, we got it done. Obviously, I thank Bob for his service.”
McGuire will face Gloria Witt, the Democratic nominee, in the Nov. 5 general election.
Good, a Republican from Farmville who during his second term in Congress was tapped as chairman of the powerful House Freedom Caucus, on Facebook thanked the “more than 31,000 voters” of the 5th District who voted for him in the primary, “and the thousands who volunteered, contributed, prayed, and supported my re-election campaign. While I am disappointed in the ultimate outcome, it has been my distinct honor to serve as the congressional representative for Virginia’s 5th District over the past 3.5 years.”
During his two terms in Congress, he said, he authored and sponsored more than 100 pieces of legislation, with three bills and seven amendments passing on the House floor.
“I have also co-sponsored hundreds of additional bills, and consistently fought to reduce federal spending, secure our borders, and protect our constitutional freedoms,” he said. “I have been the strongest and most consistent voice in the House for the protection of life from conception, and introduced the Life Act last month.”
Chaired by Chief Judge Claude Worrell, who was joined by Judge Christopher Clemens of Salem and Judge Christopher Papile of Newport News, the recount court found no evidence of enough errors in the original vote count that would have changed the outcome of the election.
Before the recount, McGuire’s lead over Good was 0.6%, which put the incumbent within the 1% margin allowing him to request a recount at his campaign’s expense, but above the 0.5% threshold that would require localities to pay for it.
“As expected, the recount did not produce any significant changes in the vote,” said David Richards, a political scientist at the University of Lynchburg. “The four-vote difference is probably due to ballots that were not correctly filled in by the voter being more closely examined. In a recount ballots that were not clearly filled out will be reexamined to see if a vote can be determined. The fact that only four of these were changed out of 60,000 plus show what a great job the Board of Elections does in Virginia.”
In the absence of any smoking gun, the recount was an “exercise in desperation or perhaps just ego” by the Good campaign, Richards said.
“No one likes to lose, especially by such a small amount, but that’s how the process is designed to work — there is a winner and a loser. Hopefully, the Republican party can put this acrimonious primary behind them and move forward to the fall election. McGuire should win the heavily Republican 5th District easily with a united party behind him.” 
The certification of McGuire’s victory marks the end of a viciously fought primary election that began in November, when the former Navy SEAL announced his challenge just days after winning a state Senate seat. McGuire made his campaign in the heavily Republican district —which 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 former president.
It was Good himself who tossed McGuire that curveball when he endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential bid in May of last year. 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.
During his primary campaign, McGuire accused Good of “hating Trump” and being a “Never-Trumper” and a “RINO” — a derogatory moniker for “Republican In Name Only” — who was 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 former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster last year, have damaged the Republican brand.
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.
DeSantis suspended his campaign after the Iowa caucuses in January, and Good endorsed Trump within minutes of the Floridian’s announcement. But it was too late — the congressman had drawn the former president’s scorn for being disloyal.
“Bob Good won’t be electable when we get done with him,” Chris LaCivita, a senior advisor and manager of Trump’s campaign told Cardinal News at the time. In the months that followed, McGuire campaigned with Trump in several states and met with the former president at Mar-a-Lago and in New York City, just days before his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.
Trump formally endorsed McGuire in late May and he held a telerally for the candidate on the eve of the primary election.
“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.”
But despite Trump’s endorsement, many Republicans in the 5th District remained loyal to Good. 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.
“Congressman Bob Good has championed America First policies by introducing legislation to codify policies defunding chain migration and requiring that immigrants are self-sufficient. He also offered multiple bills that would build upon Trump’s regulatory relief for businesses across the country,” the letter said.
