Member Newsletter
Over eight years Donald Trump has made it clear that if you cross him your career in Republican politics will be over. With Ron DeSantis’s campaign flatlining, Donald Trump seems to be moving ahead with settling the family’s outstanding business. What jumped out at me here was that his target is not a Mitt Romney (one of the only exceptions to the rule) or Adam Kinzinger or Liz Cheney. Next up appears to be one of the diehardest members of the rump of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Bob Good of Virginia.
Good is a member in good standing of the Crazy Eight (who voted to boot Kevin McCarthy on the motion to vacate). He’s a diehard Trumper. He has even pledged absolute fealty to Donald Trump once he dispatches the withered carcass of Ron DeSantis. But he has endorsed Ron DeSantis. And that won’t stand. Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita told Virginia’s Cardinal News: “Bob Good won’t be electable when we get done with him.”
Virginia’s 5th district has been a kind of reductio ad absurdum of Trumpification. Tom Garrett represented the district for one term but retired in 2018 in the face of a series of medium level scandals and an admission of alcoholism. He was replaced by Republican Denver Riggleman. During his one Trump-era term Riggleman denounced QAnon and officiated at a same-sex wedding. That lost him the renomination to arch-Trumper Bob Good. Now two terms later Trump has latched on to a perpetual far-right candidate named John McGuire to replace Good.
McGuire announced that he was running against Good right after winning a state senate seat for which he pledged in advance to serve a whole term. So he kind of pissed off a lot of Republicans in his new district. But he’s making clear he’s the riding-or-dyingist Trumper there is. He travelled to Iowa last weekend to personally campaign for Trump. “Folks from all over the country flew into Iowa this weekend, including myself, to help Trump win so we can Save America!” McGuire wrote in his campaign newsletter: “I really enjoyed my conversation with President Trump. We love Trump because he is 100% American, he loves our country and he loves the American people. I am proud to be the first elected official in Virginia to endorse Trump 2024!”
I have a hard time getting a read on just how invested Trump is in this race. LaCivita’s comment suggests he’s pretty invested. But Cardinal News notes that Trump himself hasn’t formally endorsed McGuire, even though they appear to have spent time together and Trump allowed McGuire to bow down to him and even take pictures together. Good isn’t a nobody either. He was just elected Chairman of the Freedom Caucus. So it seems at least possible that Trump could get some level of pushback from other Freedom Caucus types or that they might advocate somewhat on Good’s behalf. We’ll see. But I don’t get the sense there are many Republicans who can withstand Trump really going after them. Good is one of only six representatives to endorse DeSantis. He’s only been in Congress for two terms and can’t have built a really durable base of support in his district.