John McGuire: A Sign Of The Times

As many will recall, Tom Garrett had to leave politics for a while to deal with some personal demons. He made a comeback last year and was elected to the House of Delegates. He’s one of the good guys, and it’s good to see him back. His visit to and support of Ukraine and its fight against Russian imperialist tyranny is most appreciated.

This led to the crazy 2018 nomination race in the 5th Congressional district to succeed him, and Denver Riggleman, then running as a liberty Republican, won the nomination, and, with ease, the general election. To put it mildly, his term in office did not go as advertised. I won’t rehash the entire saga here, but suffice it to say he sold out to House leadership immediately, and was a member of the House Freedom Caucus in name only.

Enter Bob Good, an official at Liberty University in Lynchburg. Hailing from the social conservative wing of the party, he challenged Riggleman for the nomination in 2020 at the convention and routed him.

That same year, there was a race in the 7th Congressional district, in the wake of Congressman Dave Brat’s defeat to Abigail Spanberger in 2018, for the Republican nomination. Delegate Nick Freitas, in my mind, the Old Dominion’s best elected official, ran for the Republican nomination. He and John McGuire were both first elected to the House of Delegates in 2015. The contrast between the two former special operations men was stark. Freitas was engaging, gregarious, bright, and knowledgable on a host of issues. McGuire, by contrast, didn’t seem to know what his job was, or what his political philosophy was.

Freitas faced off with populist meathead chameleon Corey Stewart for the 2018 U.S. Senate nomination. Stewart had the backing of the Trump cultists, with E.W. Jackson the third candidate in the race. Thanks largely to some comically bad staff work, Nick Freitas lost by less than a percentage point to Stewart, who then, after savaging Freitas with the mos ridiculous insults during the primary contest, meekly conceded the general election to Tim Kaine after promising to fight as hard as possible.

When 2020 rolled around, among a host of others, Freitas, and later McGuire, both got in to the race in the 7th. Veteran establishment GOP hack Chris LaCivita (yes, the guy helping run the Trump campaign this year) helmed McGuire’s effort, and his motley crew of consultants proceeded to sling lies and mud at Nick Freitas the entire run-up the convention in the 7th, and even tried to short circuit the convention itself. It didn’t work. Freitas won the convention and the nomination. Unfortunately, Donald Trump was on the ballot that year, and he weighed down Freitas just enough in the slowly shifting 7th district to give victory to Spanberger.

McGuire, along with a host of other GOP figures, got on board the Glenn Youngkin train in 2021, and abandoned his previous team of consultants for Axiom Strategies, the crew who ran Youngkin’s race. In exchange, these people got promised support in future runs for office and/or appointments in the Youngkin administration. So it proved, when, after winning a seat in the Senate of Virginia in 2023, promising to support Bob Good for re-election in 2024, McGuire changed his mind the week after being elected, since it became obvious Trumpworld was out to get Bob Good for the “unpardonable” sin of supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, rather than their braying orange yankee idol. McGuire magically found fault with the man he had previously heaped praise upon, and filed to challenge him. Comically nonsensical justifications, along with incredibly poor writing, can be found here and here. This is the level Team McGuire is on. As we all know, Good lost a close race to McGuire for the nomination this year. McGuire engaged in some truly ridiculous behavior, which is summarized here.

Bottom line, this guy should NOT be elected. He has no interest in serving his constituents in either the House of Delegates, the Senate of Virginia, or the House of Representatives. He is only about advancing himself, and will make or break whatever promise or alliances he needs to make that happen. Conservatives, and principled Republican of any stripe, quite frankly, should pass on supporting him, and gear up for 2026 to support a genuine conservative candidate in the 5th, regardless of whether McGuire bests the Democratic nominee this coming Tuesday.

This post originally appeared on Occupied Liberty In Virginia.