John McGuire

Well, turns out, Ben Cline spent his money well in defeating the April referendum that would have gerrymandered him out of his Sixth District congressional seat, and he appears to have saved John McGuire’s hide, too.

But at the end of the night on Election Night, Democrats still gained two congressional seats in Virginia, flipping the Republican-held seats in the First District and Second District, to head into 2027 with an 8-3 majority in our U.S. House delegation.

In the First District, Shannon Taylor, the Henrico County Commonwealth’s Attorney, unseated 10-term Republican incumbent Rob Wittman by a 1.2-point margin.

Next door, in the Second District, Elaine Luria, who had served in Congress for two terms before being upset by Republican Jen Kiggans in 2022, will return to represent the district after defeating Kiggans by an eight-point margin.

We’d had hopes for one more flip, in the Fifth, which is represented by sentient off-the-rack ill-fitting suit jacket John McGuire, who was facing the challenge of long-ago one-term Fifth District Congressman Tom Perriello.

Alas, McGuire was able to somehow hold on to his seat, by a 1.5-point margin.

It will take a while to figure that one out, on a night that saw Republicans everywhere, even those running for dogcatcher, losing, and losing bad.

For godssake, the Mississippi U.S. Senate race is still in play at this writing, and John McGuire, who thinks child marriage is good public policy, is going back to Congress.

Shame on y’all who live along the 29 corridor south of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

In the other direction, heading up 29 toward the DC exurbs, Eugene Vindman, who won his first election for the Seventh District seat in 2024 by a 2.7-point margin, was re-elected on Tuesday by a 22-point cushion.

In our home base, the Sixth, sad news – Beth Macy ran about as good a campaign as you can in our reddest of red districts, but, reality hit.

Macy is at 43.9 percent at this writing, which means Ben Cline gets to go back to Congress on our behalf, as a guy who couldn’t even do the first thing for us when Republicans were in the majority – so what is he going to be able to do for us now with Democrats sitting at 245 House seats or more by the time Congress reconvenes in January?

All we did there was get the feckless Ben Cline two years closer to a nice federal pension.

Why do we keep shooting ourselves in the dick out this way?

I was hoping to get Macy to 45 percent to maybe set up a rematch in 2028, and we couldn’t even get there, with the best candidate that we will ever have running to represent us.

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, TikTok, BlueSky, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected]. Support AFP by signing up for our newsletter and/or powering our work with a one-time or monthly contribution.

Augusta County voters, known for kicking themselves in the genitals, shot down, by a wide margin, millions of dollars for school construction from a 1 percent local sales tax that none of them would have noticed. Instead, they either get property-tax increases, or, more likely, schools that will continue to fall in on themselves. You...

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