'Most expensive House GOP primary' reveals true 'dividing line' in Trump’s Republican Party

19 June 2024

House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-VA) is fighting to keep his seat as a group of his fellow far-right colleagues and former President Donald Trump back the Virginia congressman's primary opponent — state Senator John McGuire.

According to CNN, the Virginia lawmaker "could become the first Republican incumbent to lose a House primary to a nonincumbent this year despite his frantic efforts to win back Trump’s support."

Following Virginia's primary election day, NBC News reports, "Just a few hundred votes separated state Sen. John McGuire in the lead and Good close behind him in Virginia’s deep-red 5th District as of late Tuesday night. If the margin stays within 1 percentage point, the losing candidate can request a recount within 10 days after the election results are certified, according to Virginia state law."

In the meantime, CNN notes, the close race has revealed "toxic backstabbing, desperate lunges for Donald Trump’s favor and the former president’s always festering sense of betrayal."

During a Monday tele-rally for McGuire, Trump told listeners "If he’s reelected, Bob Good will stab Virginia in the back, sort of like he did with me. He was against things that everybody would have wanted and always made it difficult. He just let us down, he let us down very big. … As you probably know, he was against me for numerous years and then after I won the primaries, he became a big fan. But that’s not good enough, because those are the people that – they tend to leave you very quickly.”

CNN reports:

But the significance of the drama in this district – an area that produced presidents James Madison and James Monroe – goes far beyond a single, thwarted political arc. It shows that the real dividing line in the GOP is no longer a question of ideology. In more normal times, it would have been hard to imagine a conservative challenger getting to the right of Good. But in the modern GOP, the true acid test of political viability is total fealty to the presumptive nominee. And this race, which was the most expensive House GOP primary of the 2024 cycle so far, will also serve as the perfect emblem of a chaotic House majority that will be remembered far more for vicious internal fights and members trampling over one another to prove their devotion to Trump than for its legislative record.

Still, CNN emphasizes, "no one knows how it will end."

CNN's full report is available here.

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