State Sen. John McGuire, R-Goochland, and Democrat Gloria Witt at the 5th Congressional District candidates debate at Hampden-Sydney College in Farmville on Oct. 17, 2024. (Courtesy of ABC13/WSET)
Democrat Gloria Witt and her Republican opponent, state Sen. John McGuire, faced off in a respectful but spirited debate Thursday for the first and only time, offering sharply contrasting visions for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District as the race enters its final stretch.
The 45-minute discussion, hosted by WSET Lynchburg at Hampden-Sydney College in Farmville, provided a stark contrast between both candidates as they sparred over topics like immigration, education, foreign policy, political polarization and their faith in the electoral system.
With just 18 days until the Nov. 5 election, McGuire defended his presence at the Stop the Steal rally at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as his constitutional right. On that day, a group of rioters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to halt the certification of the election that Republican Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. At least 140 police officers were injured in the violent event and over 1,400 people have been criminally charged in connection to it.
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” McGuire said of his right to protest. “The Democrats have weaponized that for political purposes, and it’s just a terrible thing about the division in our country.”
McGuire also did not provide a clear response to the question by moderator Richard Pantele if he would accept the outcome of the presidential contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump.
“Let’s see what the elections are, and if it’s fair, it’s fair, and I’ll totally support that,” McGuire said, after defending Trump’s attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which Biden won by more than seven million votes.
“Over the years, even people remember Hillary Clinton challenged her election,” he said of the former Democratic presidential nominee, who conceded to Trump one day after losing the 2016 election.
“There is nothing wrong with challenging irregularities until you are satisfied. And you think about this, we had this pandemic, some people called it the ‘Plandemic,’” McGuire said — referring to a trilogy of conspiracy theory films that promoted misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic — earning him groans from the audience.
“Under the guise of the ‘Plandemic’ or the pandemic, they came up with election season in Virginia, not Election Day, but 45 days,” McGuire said, an apparent reference to the state’s early voting period. “In one state, California, they said, if you want to have a voter ID, you should be arrested for that. So they changed the rules and if they were only for the pandemic, then after the pandemic, they should change it back, and they didn’t.”
McGuire, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and state delegate from Goochland County who announced his congressional bid just one week after being elected to represent the 10th state Senate District last year, faced his own election challenge after the June 18 GOP primary, in which he defeated U.S. Rep. Bob Good, R-Farmville, by a razor-thin 0.6% margin.
After the election, Good asked for a recount, which eventually confirmed that McGuire had won the nomination contest by 366 votes out of more than 62,000 cast.
But internal divisions remained after some of the district’s conservative hardliners refused to accept McGuire as their nominee, vowing to instead write in Good on Nov. 5. The divide has led to fractures among local Republicans, with concerns that internal disagreements could weaken party unity ahead of the general election.
Witt, who for the first time has outraised her opponent during the third quarter according to the latest fundraising data, has seized on the district GOP’s intra-party feud. At Thursday’s debate, she made the Nov. 5 election a referendum on the preservation of democracy and individual liberties.
“Most of the GOP still cannot accept the fact that Donald Trump lost the election,” Witt said. “We’re at a serious point, so when you go to vote, it’s not about Republicans and Democrats and independents. It’s a test of your belief in the Constitution. We are fighting for the Constitution of America.”
Witt secured the Democratic nomination in the June 18 primary after defeating two opponents: Gary Terry, a Kentucky native and West Point graduate, and Paul Riley, a U.S. Army veteran and intelligence analyst.
Since announcing her candidacy in the spring, she has been crisscrossing the district that spans 11,000-square-miles and encompasses the majority of Southside, including Danville, and the cities of Charlottesville and Lynchburg.
“I’ve used this campaign to let folks know I’m a country girl,” Witt said. “I grew up without running water, we processed all our meats, we grew all our vegetables, we preserved them, pretty much lived off the land. You all would think of it as being organic right now, but we call it living. My values are faith, family, justice and community.”
Throughout the debate, Witt positioned herself as a voice for change, accusing McGuire of being out of touch with the needs of everyday people.
“If you care about having affordable healthcare, social security, affordable childcare, you want to think about voting for me,” Witt said.
“I want to be your voice in Congress because I am District 5, because I understand corporate and business, and I understand rural America. So I want you to leave here thinking because this is the pivotal election, this is not about Democrats and Republicans. We’re testing our belief in the Constitution and our rights and freedoms.”
The candidates shared contrasting views on immigration and foreign policy. McGuire promoted Trump’s plan to deport all undocumented immigrants while building a wall at the southern border instead of funding Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion.
“I’m not sure what the best solution is, but I do know that four years ago we didn’t have the problems in Ethiopia, Ukraine and Israel,” McGuire said. “These things were not going on, and statistics just came out that 13 to 15,000 murderers had been released into our country with this open border. It’s crazy.”
Witt countered that Republicans have used immigration as a “political pawn” by rejecting the bipartisan Secure the Border Act of 2023, which would have allocated more resources for border protection and the construction of a wall.
“For me, it’s about fixing the problem with resources, with technology; you evaluate, you assess, and you get (the immigrants) working so that they can be tax-paying people for those who qualify when it comes to the asylum question,” Witt said. “Let’s get them in and process them quickly and get them out if they don’t qualify.”
One of the most contentious moments of the debate came when Pantele, the moderator, asked both candidates about their views on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which is a policy framework for promoting fairness and full participation for all people.
“I support equity as a goal,” Witt said. “You know, we got to where we are as a people, African American people of color, because of civil rights and the efforts to create equality after starting from a handicap of enslavement. Without diversity, equity and inclusion you end up with our power broker in charge.”
McGuire said that while he believed in equal opportunity for all Americans, he does not agree with an equal outcome.
“I’m against that, it should be meritocracy,” McGuire said, calling DEI a “marxist idea.”
“If a plane goes down in the jungle and there’s one direction you go to save your whole team, do you want someone who’s never been in the jungle or do you want a Navy SEAL who is an expert on survival to keep the team alive? It should be based on merit and I don’t care if you’re pink or blue.”
But both candidates found some common ground when they vowed to work with their colleagues from across the aisle, if elected.
“I would want to work bipartisan to move the country forward, it’s one of the reasons I decided to run for this role,” Witt said.
McGuire touted his record of passing bipartisan legislation in both the Virginia House of Delegates and the state Senate.
“If we treat each other with respect and work as a team, we can turn a no into a yes, we can turn the impossible to a possible,” he said.
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