In comments Thursday, Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) vowed to pursue a recount and a “thorough investigation” of Virginia’s House elections.
Good, who is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, is in a close primary race against state Sen. John McGuire.
McGuire declared victory Tuesday night, even though the election results were still not finalized. Virginia was celebrating Juneteenth and the remaining votes were not counted until Wednesday. The Associated Press reported.
Goode appeared on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast on Thursday and said he would pursue a recount of the election.
“We’re going to do a full recount. We’re going to do a thorough investigation,” Good said. “It’s going to take several weeks. Thankfully, we have attorneys standing by and many, many attorneys ready to help us.”
McGuire, who has strongly challenged Good for a third term, is leading Good’s party with 50.2 percent approval to his 49.8 percent. Decision DeskAs of Thursday night.
Maguire has been endorsed by both former President Trump and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Virginia doesn’t have an automatic recount, but candidates can request one if they’re within 1 percentage point of the vote. Good said he’s “certain” the state is within its means to cover the costs of a recall, but is currently outreach to voters.
Goode claimed that in one of the counties, Albemarle County, Maguire’s deputies were notified “two hours” early and officials were counting votes “two hours ahead of schedule.” Goode said deputies were scheduled to be on-site but were not informed that votes were being counted early. Goode said they are “forcing” the process to “start over.”
“Obviously, we don’t know what happened in those two hours,” he said.
The Hill reached out to Albemarle County officials.
Bannon questioned Goode, asking “who the hell would” start counting votes early without representation, especially given the voter safety concerns raised by Republicans in recent years.
Goode sidestepped the question, saying Bannon “certainly wants everybody to want every legal, legitimate vote to be counted.” Goode said his team is working through the process “county by county.”
Goode did not receive Trump’s endorsement during the election, but is running for a position in Congress after Trump endorsed his opponent. Goode initially supported Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) in the Republican presidential primary, but backed Trump after DeSantis withdrew from the race.
If Good loses his seat, he will be the first sitting member of the House of Representatives to lose to an outside challenger this election cycle.
