It’s recount day for House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.). We’ve been covering Good’s closely watched primary all year, and we expect the race will finally come to an end today.
Election officials are expected to meet early in the morning and will complete the recount by the end of Thursday. The recount will take place across 24 localities in Virginia’s 5th District.
Good filed for a recount earlier this month after the Virginia State Board of Elections certified state Sen. John McGuire’s victory over the incumbent. McGuire won by roughly 375 votes, which falls within the 1% margin to allow a recount to be requested.
The recount cost is expected to be around $96,500, according to local reports.
Good’s campaign declined to comment.
McGuire’s campaign called the recount effort “frivolous” and questioned whether Good had the funds to pay for it.
“We expect a fair and open process that will reaffirm John McGuire’s victory over Bob Good,” said Sean Brown, McGuire’s spokesperson.
We’re also told that Virginia GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin is planning to host a fundraiser for McGuire this month, a sign that most elected officials don’t see Good reversing his loss.
Good plans to step down as HFC chair if he loses his recount. As we reported before, the jockeying to replace him has already started.
Tracking Tennessee: We’re also closely monitoring the Tennessee primaries tonight.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), a freshman member of the Freedom Caucus, is facing a primary challenge in the 5th District from Nashville Metro Council member Courtney Johnston. Ogles is planning to run for HFC chair if Good steps down.
Ogles has come under scrutiny for embellishing his resume and misreporting a loan on his campaign finance reports. Johnston, who has a significant fundraising advantage, has been hitting Ogles on these controversies and accusing him of contributing to chaos in Congress instead of governing.
Ogles’ conservative allies are worried that the race is closer than expected. If the freshman loses, it would be another blow to the Freedom Caucus. The conservative group is expected to lose its chair and has whiffed in its attempts this cycle to knock off GOP incumbents they don’t see as conservative enough.
We wrote about the dynamics of this race earlier this week.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) is also facing a primary challenger in Tres Wittum, but we don’t expect too much trouble here. Wittum is a former state Senate research analyst who ran against Ogles in the 5th District primary in 2022. In that race, Wittum only took 0.7% of the vote.
