We are now less than one month away from the Republican nominating convention in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District and with the big day drawing near, candidates with spotty voting records are feeling the heat.
In the latest edition in the eternal struggle of moderate Republicans running away from their voting record we have John McGuire.
On Monday evening, John took to Facebook to claim that an unnamed outside group is attacking him by “spewing lies on behalf of Nick Freitas” and included a link to a new page on his website about his voting history with the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). We have taken the liberty of including a screenshot of this page below.
John makes a lot of very direct statements on this page after stating that Nick Freitas isn’t being honest, so we wanted to look up these claims and see how “honest” John McGuire is being about his own record.
Claim #1: John McGuire never supported the liberal Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)
Even though John has only been in office for 2 ½ years it’s clear that he has taken to the ways of a politician as quick as the best (or worst) of them. See, in John’s Facebook post and on this new website page he is very focused on the fact that in 2019 and 2020 he voted against the ERA bill “every time” as he says. But wait, John McGuire was first elected in 2017 and his first legislative session was in January 2018, so why doesn’t John also claim that he voted against the 2018 version of the Equal Rights Amendment?
Well, here’s why:
You can double check this for yourself, it’s literally still on the official Legislative Information System website for the Virginia House of Delegates right here.
That’s right, John McGuire SPONSORED the Equal Rights Amendment in 2018, a bill that he himself described as liberal.
Claim #2: John McGuire is endorsed by National Right to Life
Fact Check: FALSE
There has been no endorsement made by National Right to Life in this race and TBE has received confirmation that there is no plan to endorse John McGuire for the Republican nomination.
Claim #3: John McGuire is endorsed by “Virginia Society of Human Life”
Fact Check: FALSE
First, the organization that John is claiming to have the endorsement of is Virginia Society FOR Human Life. Further, there has been no endorsement made by Virginia Society for Human Life in this race and TBE has received confirmation that there is no plan to endorse John McGuire for the Republican nomination. We suppose it is possible that John could go out tomorrow and create a new group called “Virginia Society OF Human Life” and endorse himself, but we’ll give John the benefit of the doubt and just say that he was simply lying about Virginia Society FOR Human Life endorsing him for Congress.
Claim #4: John McGuire received a 100% score from The Family Foundation
Fact Check: FALSE
In Virginia, The Family Foundation releases a legislative report card after each 2-year term. So John has only been in office to receive 1 report card rating from them and he received a score of 94%. A 94% isn’t a bad score, so why is John McGuire lying and claiming to have a perfect 100% score?
Summary:
- John McGuire lied about never supporting the liberal Equal Rights Amendment and in fact he sponsored it in 2018.
- John McGuire lied about National Right to Life endorsing him.
- John McGuire lied about Virginia Society for Human Life endorsing him (and got the name of the organization wrong in the process).
- John McGuire lied about receiving a 100% score from The Family Foundation.
If this is the extent that John McGuire is willing to lie when it comes to one issue and covering up one piece of legislation that he sponsored, it’s clear that he’s willing to say and do whatever he has to in order to win this race and that does not instill confidence in John being an actual conservative if he were elected to Congress.
