A nail-biter contest between House Freedom Caucus chairman Bob Good (R-VA) and his Trump-backed challenger cast a question mark over an otherwise good election night for incumbent lawmakers.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole easily fended off a primary challenge, as did two other Oklahoma Republican incumbents.
Meanwhile, the Good primary, in Virginia’s 5th District, could be headed for a recount, with just a few hundred votes separating the lawmaker and Virginia state Sen. John McGuire as the vote-counting stretched into the late hours.
Elsewhere, voters in Virginia, Oklahoma, and Georgia helped set fall matchups with a series of primaries in both competitive and safe House districts.
Here are the Washington Examiner’s top takeaways from Tuesday’s primaries.
Bob Good endures nail-biter election
The embattled Good, who faced opposition from Trump but also an unorthodox coalition of House lawmakers, traded the lead with McGuire as results trickled in on Tuesday night. With less than a half point separating the two candidates around midnight, the race could be headed to a recount.
According to Virginia law, a recount can be requested if the final tally is within 1 percentage point.
“No matter the outcome, you’ve shown the DC Swamp that you won’t back down from standing for what’s right. Keep the faith and don’t stop fighting now,” Good wrote on X as the race was still being decided.
Trump has held a grudge against Good for endorsing his GOP presidential rival, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy also sought to oust the Freedom Caucus chairman after he was one of eight Republicans who voted to remove him from the speakership.
McGuire appeared to declare victory at his watch party in Virginia, saying “it is an honor to be your Republican nominee,” but no outlets have yet to declare the race for either candidate.
Oklahoma incumbents win their primaries
Cole, a longtime House member, defeated self-funding businessman Paul Bondar and three other candidates. Bondar, a political novice, invested $5 million of his fortune to unseat Cole, who has spent $3.1 million on the campaign.
But it wasn’t nearly enough to take down Cole, who won 65% of the vote with 87% of ballots counted, according to the Associated Press.
Incumbent Rep. Frank Lucas (R-OK) comfortably defeated two Republican challengers in Oklahoma’s 3rd District Tuesday night. The Associated Press called the race for Lucas, who won nearly 73.1% with 88% of votes counted, less than 20 minutes after polls closed.
Robin Carder and Darren Hamilton were hoping to unseat Lucas, who has been in Congress since 1994 and is chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
Incumbent Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) also easily defeated a Republican challenger in Oklahoma’s 1st District. The Associated Press called the race for Hern, who won 86.7% with 54% of votes counted, also nearly 20 minutes after polls closed.
Marjorie Taylor Greene gets a Democratic challenger
Democrats in Georgia’s 14th District selected Shawn “General” Harris as the candidate who will face Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in November.
The Associated Press called the primary runoff for Harris roughly 20 minutes after polls closed at 7 p.m. Eastern. Harris won 69% of the vote compared to Democrat Clarence Blalock’s 31%, with 98% of votes counted.
Harris faces a steep climb in unseating Greene during the general election. The Cook Political Report rates the seat R+22.
Showdowns set in competitive Virginia House races
Army veteran Eugene Vindman won the Democratic primary in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District to succeed outgoing Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA).
Spanberger is stepping down from Congress to run for governor, but the swing district is a top seat House Republicans are hoping to flip in November.
Vindman, who won 49.3% with 92% of the vote counted, will face Republican Derrick Anderson in November. The army veteran is perhaps best known, along with his twin brother Alexander Vindman, for reporting a 2019 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that led to Trump’s first impeachment.
Elsewhere, Navy veteran Missy Cotter Smasal won the Democratic primary for Virginia’s 2nd District, defeating fellow Democrat Jeremiah Denton.
The Associated Press called the race at 8:04 p.m., with Smasal winning nearly 70% of the vote compared to Denton’s 29.9% with 61% of votes counted.
Smasal, who is supported by former Democratic Govs. Ralph Northam and Terry McAuliffe, seeks to unseat Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) in a district that President Joe Biden narrowly won in 2022.
In the Old Dominion’s 10th District, state Sen. Suhas Subramanyam won the Democratic primary to succeed outgoing Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-VA).
Subramanyam won 30.3% of the vote with 93% of ballots counted, per the Associated Press. Wexton’s Parkinson’s disease has severely curtailed her ability to speak and led to the congresswoman deciding against another term. She had supported Subramanyam in the primary that featured 12 candidates in total.
Sen. Tim Kaine to face Republican Hung Cao
Navy veteran Hung Cao easily won a Republican Senate primary in Virginia featuring five candidates on Tuesday, setting up a battle with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) in the fall.
Cao won nearly 62.1% of the vote with 93% of the ballots counted, according to the Associated Press. The nearest competitor, Edward Garcia, won roughly 11% of the vote.
Trump supported Cao in his Senate bid after he lost a congressional campaign against Wexton in 2022 by more than 6 percentage points.
In a state Biden won by 10 percentage points in 2020, it’ll be hard for Cao to unseat Kaine. The Cook Political Report rates the Senate race as “solid Democrat.”
Trump endorsements hold sway despite Good question mark
Trump’s endorsement continues to hold weight within the GOP as Trump-backed candidates won their primaries, even as the Good primary remains too close to call.
Georgia Republican Brian Jack, Trump’s former political director, won his election, defeating former state Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan in the runoff for the Peach State’s 3rd District.
Among other candidates, Trump also backed Cole, who fended off Bondar, the self-funding challenger.
