Rep. John McGuire Barnstorms Across Virginia’s 5th District

Rep. John McGuire, the Republican seeking reelection in Virginia’s 5th District, hit the road this weekend with campaign stops in Lynchburg, Danville, Powhatan, and Charlottesville. Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin also spoke at all four appearances.

“People ask, ‘why do you work hard?’ and the answer is easy,” McGuire told an enthusiastic gathering in Charlottesville. “If you thought you were losing your country, how hard would you work?”

The congressman, who’s in a tight race with former Rep. Tom Perriello, touted achievements that happened during his first term in office, which he said included a total shutdown of the country’s borders. McGuire said it is important that border crossings are now at zero, because he said the U.S. can’t afford illegal immigrants.

“It’s not fair to come here illegally, and they get free healthcare and free everything,” he told the Charlottesville rally. “Imagine if the whole world came here, it’d be suicide, national suicide, just foolish.”

The congressman also pointed to recent rioting in France, which he said “is because these leftist policies will destroy a nation. I want to ask the Democrats, when are you going to stop being for them and start being for us? When will the Democrats stop being for the people that want to destroy everything our Founding Fathers gave their lives for?” he asked. “The open border policies led to Paris burning. The defund the police policies led to Paris burning.”

Also on the foreign policy front, McGuire voted this year for the bipartisan bill named for the late Sen. Lindsey O. Graham that aimed to impose strict sanctions on Iran and Russia. This month, the White House effectively gutted that law by taking steps to make it easier for Russia to sell diesel fuel.

The Daily Signal asked McGuire whether he will also support the bipartisan Ronald Reagan Peace Through Strength Act of 2026, which is co-sponsored by two Republicans and aims to reimpose sanctions on Russia.

“Right now, I just want to get through the next 10 days, but we’ll always take a look at the information, and we’ll make our decision then,” McGuire answered about the bill, which could come to the floor in a lame-duck session. “But I would say, President Trump and his team are making some decisions at levels of information I don’t have. So we’ll look at the information, see what’s best for the 5th District, best for Virginia, and best for our country.”

On social issues, McGuire called out the state’s Democrat governor over bathroom policies at her alma mater. “I’ve had at least five constituents call me up and say that Abigail Spanberger was responsible for putting tampons in the boy’s bathrooms at UVA, and I can’t imagine how that makes any sense at all,” McGuire said. “So there’s a lot of looney tune-type stuff going on, and we have stopped it, and we’ve got to make sure we keep stopping it.”

The congressman also said he is a “big Glenn Youngkin fan,” and he repeatedly touted the former governor’s success at bringing jobs and investment to the Commonwealth.

McGuire was elected to the House in 2024 after he topped then-Rep. Bob Good in the Republican primary by 370 votes out of nearly 63,000 cast. President Donald Trump endorsed McGuire in that race, writing on social media that “Bob Good is BAD FOR VIRGINIA, AND BAD FOR THE USA.” Yard signs across the 5th District two years later still cite that Trump endorsement.

However, during his 18-minute address in Charlottesville, McGuire mentioned Trump only twice: once to tout his “drill baby, drill” oil policies, and once to note that he’d sent a letter asking the president “to consider a state of emergency on permitting for new refineries” to pause regulations and make it easier to open new oil refineries.

Around the same time in Congress, two Senate committees advanced the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act on the final day of September. The proposal is a bipartisan legislative attempt to slash red tape. The House of Representatives did not have time to consider that bill ahead of its extended October recess.

More from this network:
Domains for Sale · GOTPeople.org · TheDSAPlatform · The Truth About Socialism

Donate to GOTPeople.org