Trump-backed Republican Congressional candidate John McGuire continues to narrowly lead Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) in Virginia’s Fifth Congressional District Republican primary, but the race remains too close to call two days after polls closed.
As of Thursday at 12:30 p.m. ET, McGuire had 31,342 votes (50.26 percent) against the House Freedom Caucus chairman, who had 31,113 votes (49.74 percent), according to the New York Times’s unofficial results. More than 95 percent of the vote had been counted.
The race has the potential to head for a recount, as the Hill’s Mychael Schnell first observed.
If the final margin is within one percentage point, as appears possible, the losing candidate can request a recount.
Commonwealth law further directs that the district pay for a recount when the margin between candidates is half a percent or less; otherwise, the petitioning candidate will bear the costs. Good’s current 0.52 percent deficit teeters on this threshold.
McGuire declared victory on Tuesday night, but no major agency has called the race as of yet.
“Thank you to my family, thank you to everyone who helped out on this campaign, thank you to the people who endorsed and supported me, and thank you to Donald J. Trump for believing in me,” he wrote in a post on X. “There are still a few votes left to count, but it’s clear that all paths end with a victory.”
Folks in the 5th can rest assured that should they elect me in Nov., they will have an effective fighter in Congress who will get the job done for them.
— John McGuire (@JohnMcGuire4VA) June 19, 2024
Good emphasized Wednesday morning that the contest is “too close to call.”
“We are in a period where the law provides a process for evaluating the accuracy of all the vote totals from election day to ensure everyone can have full confidence in the certified results,” he wrote in a post on X. “Provisional ballots and mail-in ballots are also still to be counted.”
This race remains too close to call. We are in a period where the law provides a process for evaluating the accuracy of all the vote totals from election day to ensure everyone can have full confidence in the certified results. Provisional ballots and mail-in ballots are also…
— Bob Good for Congress (@GoodForCongress) June 19, 2024
“We are asking for full transparency from the officials involved and patience from the people of the 5th District over the coming weeks as the certification of results is completed. We believe we can still prevail,” he added.
Good faced the challenge from McGuire after he backed Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in the Republican primary and only switched his endorsement to Trump after the Florida governor exited the race and did so himself.
In his endorsement of McGuire on May 28, Trump declared that Good “turned his back on our incredible movement.”
The winner of the race will square off with Democrat Gloria Witt in the general election.
