Navy veteran and former House candidate Hung Cao cruised to the Senate GOP nomination in Virginia and will face incumbent Senator Tim Kaine (D.) in November.
The Vietnamese immigrant raised more than twice as much as any other candidate and grabbed the endorsement of former president Donald Trump. Two recent polls show Trump polling even with President Joe Biden in Virginia, a glimmer of hope for the veteran in a state that Biden won by nearly ten points in 2020.
“Tomorrow, we begin our campaign to save the country that saved my life,” Cao said in a press statement on Tuesday night. “I spent twenty-five years in the Navy, while Tim Kaine spent thirty years in elected office. The taxpayers signed the front of our paychecks for the same amount of time. The difference is this: Tim Kaine got rich, and I got scars.”
Cao held about 62 percent of the vote as of 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday night, with 95 percent of votes counted, according to AP. He had lost a 2022 House bid in the tenth district to the incumbent Democrat by about six points.
In other Virginia races, GOP hopeful Derrick Anderson defeated an antiestablishment candidate in the seventh district with support from House GOP leadership, including an endorsement from Speaker Mike Johnson.
As of 11:40 p.m., a hotly contested race in the fifth district between Representative Bob Good (R., Va.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, and state senator John McGuire was too close to call. Trump endorsed McGuire after Good backed Florida governor Ron DeSantis in the presidential primary last year.
The winner in the southern Virginia contest may not be clear until later in the week. “There are still provisional votes to count,” the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project said on Tuesday night, “and ballots postmarked as of June 18 that arrive between tomorrow and Friday will also be counted.”
District 5
Only three and a half years earlier, Good had been elected to the House after defeating incumbent Denver Riggleman in a 2020 primary. Up against the former president’s endorsement and more than $8 million in spending opposing him, Good is on the edge of meeting the same fate.
The race is still too close to call. As of 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday night, McGuire led Good by fewer than 1,000 votes, or about 1 percent, with 9 percent of votes yet to be counted, according to the Associated Press.
The former president endorsed McGuire late last month in what read more like an attack on Good.
“Bob Good is BAD FOR VIRGINIA, AND BAD FOR THE USA,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “He turned his back on our incredible movement, and was constantly attacking and fighting me until recently, when he gave a warm and ‘loving’ Endorsement. But really, it was too late. The damage had been done!”
After Good stymied Kevin McCarthy’s speakership bid early last year and helped remove him from the role in October, a set of more moderate Republican PACs, including the Republican Main Street Partnership, backed McGuire.
The former speaker’s allies fired an advertising barrage. Outside groups tied to McCarthy spent $6.9 million on ads in the race, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.
Anti-Good spending, as labeled by the Virginia Public Access Project, outpaced all other types of spending in the race, including Pro-McGuire outlays. The race was the most expensive of all primaries this week, with about $15 million in total spending.
Support for McGuire snowballed in the weeks leading up to his victory, with endorsements even from members of the Good-led House Freedom Caucus. Representative Warren Davidson (R., Ohio), for example, a member of the Freedom Caucus, endorsed McGuire on Sunday.
The GOP nominee in the fifth congressional district, a 14-year Republican stronghold, is almost certain to win in November.
District 7
Anderson’s victory in the seventh district notches a win for a House Republican leadership backing more moderate candidates who will support GOP leadership in Congress.
Anderson was beating Hamilton 45.8 percent to 37 percent, with 91 percent of votes counted, as of 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press.
The two front-runners in the six-person race are special-forces veterans of the same generation. A former Green Beret, Anderson had House GOP leadership — including Speaker Johnson — on his side, while former Navy Seal Hamilton was endorsed by Freedom Caucus leaders — including Good — who had helped oust McCarthy from the speakership.
The former president, whose endorsement is the most coveted in Republican politics, notably stayed out of the race.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, a House GOP–aligned super PAC, spent $125,000 on Anderson’s behalf and added him to a list of “trailblazers” whom the group has been supporting since April.
“Derrick is a standout candidate of exceptional character and accomplishment, representing the best of America,” CLF President Dan Conston said in a press statement on Tuesday night. “His nomination gives Republicans a strong opportunity to win this fall.”
Anderson aims to flip a Virginia district that had been a 38-year Republican stronghold until Democratic representative Abigail Spanberger won the seat in 2018.
The three-term incumbent, Spanberger, is leaving her seat to run for governor next year. In her place, Anderson will face Eugene Vindman, a national-security official whose whistleblower report helped spark the former president’s first impeachment.
Republican Yesli Vega lost to Spanberger by about five points in 2022. Cook Political Report says the district “leans-Democrat.”