U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., joins Virginia Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland, in Louisa County on June 5, 2024, to support his bid to represent Virginia’s 5th Congressional District. (Charlotte Rene Woods/Virginia Mercury)
In a sign of deepening divisions among Republicans in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, at least four members of the district’s 37-member GOP Committee, including the vice chair, were ousted over the weekend, and another resigned after refusing to sign renewed loyalty pledges for state Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland, the party’s nominee.
The four purged members and the resignee were among 25 Republican officials who in early June signed an open letter urging former President Donald Trump to reconsider his endorsement of McGuire, advocating instead for Trump’s support of U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-Farmville, the incumbent.
Jim Herring, who has served as the committee’s vice chair for two years and who also chairs the Goochland County GOP, told members in an email Sunday that the Republican Party of Virginia’s decision to demand the renewed pledges was “unwarranted, unprecedented and unauthorized.”
After consulting with Chris Marston, the RPV’s official legal counsel, other attorneys and past Republican officials, his belief was confirmed, Herring wrote in the email, which was obtained by The Mercury.
“In fact, it is very similar to the actions of prosecutors against Donald Trump. They make up allegations, find a politically weaponized judge, and then convict him knowing that all of this will probably be overturned on appeal,” Herring wrote.
McGuire has been a source of contention within the party since he announced his bid for Congress just one week after winning his seat in the 10th state Senate District last year — particularly among those backing Good, who went on to lose to McGuire in the June 18 primary election by a mere 366 votes out of more than 62,000 cast.
Even after McGuire’s narrow victory was confirmed by a recount, which Good requested, and an additional review of the results, some Republican hardliners in the district have refused to accept the former Navy SEAL as their party’s nominee, instead turning to social media to launch a write-in campaign on behalf of Good, who has not publicly supported this effort.
At a Sept. 14 meeting of the executive committee of the RPV’s State Central Committee, the party’s 80-member governing body in Virginia, Jeff Ryer, chairman of the 1st Congressional District Committee and the spokesman for the Trump campaign in Virginia, expressed concern that McGuire lacked “fulsome support” in the 5th District, RPV Chair Rich Anderson said in a phone interview Monday.
Consequently, Ryer made a motion for the committee to require a renewed loyalty pledge from the 25 party officials who had signed the letter to Trump.
“It’s an affirmation statement, I don’t call it a loyalty statement,” Anderson said. “It just reaffirms that they will support the eventual nominees that would come out of these contests, whether they are a primary or a party run process. And with all the contention down in the 5th District because of a hotly contested race, a number of our congressional district committee chairs were concerned that perhaps not all were going to support McGuire.”
But in his email to committee members, Herring, the former vice chair, alleged that top party officials decided to “dictate to the 5th District Committee” members who had signed the Trump letter that they would have to “sign a loyalty oath or get kicked out” of the Republican Party.
“This decision was NOT brought to the (whole) State Central Committee for review or approval, and most were not even aware of this action,” Herring wrote, adding that the committee then agreed to “send a letter to those affected” and set a deadline by which they had to return their signed pledges for Sept. 27 at 5 p.m.
“The form they sent in their letter was similar to the loyalty oaths they had required before, with the exception of one part … the naming of specific candidates you pledge to support. To my knowledge, this action has not been done before, at least in the over four decades that I have been involved,” Herring wrote.
Ryer said Monday that he made the motion to ask for the renewed pledges because based on several news accounts it had become apparent that what he believed to be “a false narrative was developing that leaders in the party were not fully supportive of our nominees.”
Ryer pushed back against allegations that the loyalty pledges had been used to force 5th District Republicans on the record in an effort to get them removed from the party as a punishment for asking Trump to reconsider his endorsement.
“It was my hope — and the hope of the executive committee — that all who had signed the June 6 letter would fulfill their previously professed pledge to support all our nominees, as required by the party plan,” Ryer said, adding that he had made his motion solely in the capacity of his role as the 1st District chair and a longtime member of the State Central Committee.
But Rick Buchanan, the chairman of the 5th District GOP Committee, in an email to Anderson and State Central Committee leadership sent after the deadline had passed on Friday afternoon pointed out that members had already signed similar pledges of support earlier this year, as a requirement under the RPV’s party plan to attend mass meetings and conventions.
Although he “immediately” forwarded the request for the renewed affirmations to the entire committee, Buchanan also said that no member of the State Central Committee had reached out to him directly or any of the district’s 24 unit chairs “to inquire about the necessity of this action as a remedy,” suggesting that the distrust between the two fractions was based on miscommunication.
“Hearsay and assumption lead directly to dysfunction. The truth can only be found by going straight to the source, and the SCC and RPV have yet to reach out to develop an understanding. Mr. Chairman, this is not the way to work together as brothers in our political fight against our common enemies,” Buchanan wrote.
Singling out Republican officials from the 5th District for supporting the candidate “we felt was the best candidate in a primary is more than an overreach,” Buchanan said in the email. “This action is pay-back for sending the letter to President Trump. Though some question the veracity of the letter, we firmly stand behind everything the letter says.”
Buchanan declined to comment for this story Monday.
In their letter to Trump, the district’s top GOP officials had hailed Good, the chairman of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, as a champion of America First policies “by introducing legislation to codify policies defunding chain migration and requiring that immigrants are self-sufficient.”
During his time in Congress, Good also offered multiple bills that would build upon Trump’s regulatory relief for businesses across the country, the party officials wrote.
“We the undersigned leaders of the 5th District Republican Congressional Committee strongly urge President Donald Trump to reconsider his endorsement of Congressman Bob Good’s opponent in the Republican Primary,” they concluded.
After receiving the request for his renewed loyalty pledge, at least one 5th District Committee member — Glenn Mozingo of Cumberland County — handed in his resignation on Thursday.
“I am writing to advise that I will not sign the pledge form that was enclosed with your letter dated September 16, 2024, and I am resigning as a member of the Cumberland County Republican Committee with immediate effect. I understand that my membership on the 5th District Congressional Committee will lapse as well,” Mozingo wrote in an email to RPV Executive Director Ken Nunnenkamp which was obtained by The Mercury.
Mozingo wrote that he wasn’t aware of any reservations among 5th District Committee members regarding their loyalties to Trump or Hung Cao, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate.
“Consequently, it is apparent that this is a transparent attempt to coerce each committee member to publicly go on record in support of John McGuire, which I will not do.”
Although he signed the pledge, James Hankins, another 5th District vice chair, also lashed out against RPV leadership.
“On a personal leave I feel insulted by being asked to sign this,” Hankins wrote in an email to Anderson. “I am signing this form this one time. If I am ever asked to do this again, I will resign from all posts I hold with the Republican Party and I will never raise another dollar for the 5th.”
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