Virginia
Tight Virginia GOP contest between Bob Good and John McGuire too close to call
The Republican primary race in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District between House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good and state Sen. John McGuire was too close to call on Tuesday night.
As of 11 p.m., 92% of the vote was called – with McGuire being up by just 300 votes.
The race will now move to a recount for the GOP primary in the state’s reliably red 5th Congressional District, in the southern part of the commonwealth.
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U.S. Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), Chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, speaks alongside fellow members during a press conference on the government funding bill, at the U.S. Capitol on March 22, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
In a statement on X, Good thanked supporters for their volunteer efforts and slammed the “D.C. Swamp.”
“The entire DC Swamp was aligned against us with over $10 million in attack ads, but with your help we were able to make this race too close to call,” Good wrote, in part.
“No matter the outcome, you’ve shown the DC Swamp that you won’t back down from standing for what’s right. Keep the faith and don’t stop fighting now,” he said.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and and former President Donald Trump meet ahead of 2024 election. (Trump campaign)
The intra-party primary battle came after former President Donald Trump unleashed his wrath against Good for previously endorsing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president.
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Even though the two-term congressional representative avoided criticizing Trump and quickly endorsed the former president after DeSantis ended his White House bid in January, Trump wrote on this Truth Social platform that “the damage has been done!”
The former president last month endorsed McGuire, who also had the backing of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a conservative firebrand and major Trump ally who is a vocal critic of Good who last year broke with the House Freedom Caucus. The group is considered the most far-right organization of lawmakers in the chamber.
Then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2023, as he was ousted as House Speaker. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also targeted Good, who was one of eight Republicans last autumn who joined with Democrats voting to oust McCarthy from his leadership position.
However, Good had the support of Reps. Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds of Florida, two conservatives who are also strong backers of Trump.
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Additionally, fellow House Freedom Caucus members, Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Andy Biggs of Arizona, joined Good in Virginia for a rally on Friday.
Even though he was targeted by Trump, Good spotlighted his support for the former president as he ran for re-election.
“Happy Birthday to the best and next President of the United States, President Trump!” Good wrote on social media last Friday, on the former president’s 78th birthday.
Good also showed up earlier this spring at Trump’s criminal trial in New York City to show his support for the former president.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
SOUTH BOSTON, Va. (WSET) — A manufacturing company in South Boston is now in contact with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality after an oil spill this week.
A Hitachi Energy spokesperson says that because of heavy rainfall and a pump failure, a small amount of transformer mineral oil spilled.
The manufacturing company makes power transformers. The spokesperson told ABC 13 that an employee noticed oil in a secondary containment area.
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The company says the material was tested and found to be non-toxic. They say the oil stayed on company property with no harm to the community or environment.
ABC 13 reached out to the Department of Environmental Quality, and we are waiting to hear back.
New Virginia laws banning the sale and transfer of assault weapons go into effect in about five weeks. But at least five conservative prosecutors say they won’t enforce them.
Spotsylvania County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ryan Mehaffey said he believes the laws violate the Constitution.
“The Second Amendment is alive and well in Spotsylvania County,” he told News4.
The commonwealth will ban the sale and manufacture of certain semi-automatic weapons, shifting gun laws to more closely align with states such as California and Illinois. But as Virginia teeters from purple to blue and back again, some elected officials are making clear that the new laws won’t be enforced in their counties.
Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement: “Commonwealth’s Attorneys are elected to enforce our laws, which is what we expect them to do when these laws take effect on July 1.”
The law will make it a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine for people to buy, sell, transfer, import, or manufacture an assault firearm.
Mehaffey said the law is in direct conflict with the Second Amendment.
“It’s fundamentally opposed to a free society, a society where liberty reigns. And this is the moment in time where the Second Amendment was drafted and enacted, where the government couldn’t take the right of the people to defend themselves away,” he said.
Eleven other states and D.C. already have versions of their own assault weapons ban. The details and laws vary and they’ve been challenged in the courts. In fact, several lawsuits have already been filed against Virginia’s new ban.
“Every assault weapons ban that has gone before a federal court in this country has been upheld, including, most importantly, Maryland’s,” said Mary Kenah of Everytown for Gun Safety.
She said Maryland’s ban is considered more restrictive than Virginia’s and was upheld by the same court that presides over Virginia. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up this case, so Maryland’s assault weapon ban remains in place.
“The people of Virginia showed that their priority is gun-violence prevention. They elected a former Moms Demand Action volunteer as their governor,” Kenah said.
In places such a Spotsylvania County, they’ve elected Mehaffey as their prosecutor. It’s a county that surprised a lot of people in November when it voted blue, in favor of Gov. Abigail Spanberger.
Despite that shift, Mehaffey said he’s confident that his position against the new assault weapons ban is what his constituents want.
Other prosecutors who have said they won’t enforce Virginia’s assault weapons ban are from Powhatan, Pulaski, Scott and Smyth counties.
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