FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — One of America’s most conservative congressmen faces a solemn primary challenge after his opponent received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, while voters in two other districts are nominating candidates for two open seats in Virginia’s primary election Tuesday.
Representative Bob Good, chairman of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, is seeking a third term representing Virginia’s 5th congressional district, but state Senator John McGuire has created a powerful rival race that highlights tensions within the party.
On the Democratic side, voters want to nominate candidates who can fill the seats vacated by popular incumbents Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton.
At the state level, voters will choose a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate to run against Democrat Tim Kaine.
Here is a look at the main election campaigns:
House District 5
Conventional politics might suggest that a congressman with Good’s conservative credentials would be a sure bet in a primary. But he incurred Trump’s wrath when he endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for president. After DeSantis dropped out, he switched back to Trump, but Trump is backing McGuire and portraying Good as a schemer.
Trump continued to denigrate Good while campaigning for McGuire on a phone call Monday night.
“Unlike Bob Good, John McGuire will not let you down,” Trump said, adding that McGuire is “strong on the border” and will “always defend your Second Amendment rights under siege.”
Good, for his part, says he thinks Trump is the best president of his lifetime and is only supporting DeSantis because the Constitution only allows Trump to serve one term.
Good also angered Republican insiders by voting to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, causing some chaos in the party.
McGuire, a state legislator and former Navy SEAL, is trying to capitalize on this, repeating Trump’s attacks on Good and calling him a “Never Trumper.”
Good has sharply criticized McGuire for being a notorious campaigner who announced his candidacy for Congress just a week after winning a four-year term in the state Senate.
If Good loses, he would be the first incumbent in the House to face a primary this year (except for one race in which two incumbents faced each other due to redistricting).
The winner will face one of three Democrats: Gloria Tinsley Witt, Gary Terry or Paul Riley.
The 5th Congressional District stretches from Charlottesville in the north, past the westernmost suburbs of Richmond, through Lynchburg and down to Danville and the North Carolina border.
House District 7
Spanberger is giving up the seat in northern and central Virginia to run for governor in 2025. The district leans slightly Democratic, and seven Democrats are running for the seat. Leading the field is political newcomer Eugene Vindman, a military veteran who gained some notoriety for his role in Trump’s first impeachment trial. Four current and former elected officials – Briana Sewell, Margaret Franklin, Andrea Bailey and Elizabeth Guzman – are also in the race.
On the Republican side, fundraising numbers suggest that Derrick Anderson and Cameron Hamilton are the two top candidates. Anderson is a former Army Green Beret and Hamilton is a former Navy SEAL.
House District 10
Wexton is not seeking re-election for her Northern Virginia seat after being diagnosed with a occasional, incurable neurological disease. The race to replace her is between 12 Democrats and four Republicans in a district that has become more Democratic-leaning.
The Democratic candidates include former Virginia House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn, Senators Dan Helmer, Suhas Subramanyam and Jennifer Boysko, and former Virginia Secretary of Education Atif Qarni. Wexton is supporting Subramanyam.
Republicans include Aliscia Andrews, who ran for the seat four years ago, and attorney Mike Clancy.
House District 2
In the congressional district that stretches along the Virginia coast, Missy Cotter Smasal and Jeremiah “Jake” Denton IV are competing for the Democratic nomination.
Smasal is a Marine veteran who runs a nonprofit that honors fallen servicewomen. Denton is a constitutional and civil rights attorney who comes from a military family. The connection to the armed forces is often a hallmark in the 2nd District, which is home to many veterans and several military bases and borders the nation’s largest Naval base in Norfolk.
The winner will face Congresswoman Jen Kiggans, a former Marine helicopter pilot and state senator elected in 2022.
US Senate
Five Republicans are vying for a chance to oust Kaine, a former governor and vice presidential candidate who is running unopposed for a third term in the Senate.
Hung Cao, a 25-year Marine veteran, has the most campaign cash and experience running for higher office of the five Republican candidates. He is also endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who has said Cao will support stop inflation, secure the border and defend the Second Amendment.
The other Republican primary candidates are Scott Parkinson, Jonathan Emord, Eddie Garcia and Chuck Smith.
Parkinson was a congressional staffer for DeSantis. He now works for the conservative economic policy group Club for Growth. Emord is an author and lawyer and often cites his experience successfully fighting the Food and Drug Administration in court.
Garcia is a U.S. Army veteran and former Army liaison to Congress. He owns a mobile app for military veterans. Smith is a Marine veteran, former commander of the Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and an attorney.
Republicans smell political blood if President Joe Biden tops the ballot in November, but whoever runs against Kaine will face an uphill battle in a state that hasn’t sent a Republican to the U.S. Senate since 2002.
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Finley contributed to this report from Norfolk.
