Live from Virginia Wednesday morning on The John Fredericks Show – weekdays on WNTW AM 820/ FM 92.7 – Richmond, WJFN FM 100.5 – Central Virginia; WMPH AM 1010 / FM 100.1 / FM 96.9 (7-9 p.m.) Hampton Roads; WBRG AM 1050 / FM 105.1 – Lynchburg/Roanoke and weekdays 6-10 a.m. and 24/7 stream – host Fredericks welcomed U.S. Representative in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District Bob Good, who talks upcoming Republican convention and his renomination May 21st at Hampden-Sydney College.
Fredericks: Joining me now, Bob Good, running for a second term. He’s got a nominating convention coming up, and that is on May 21st. And I’m going to start with that, just to be sure that everybody knows exactly what’s going on with this renominating convention.
He does have an opponent, a soy-boy Never Trumper RINO from Charlottesville. You can find him if you go to any Charlottesville Starbucks, probably sipping a latte through a swizzle stick.
Bob, good to have you with us. Tell us about your convention, on May 21. Where is it? Who’s going? Has everything closed? How’s this look?
Good: Good morning, John. Thanks for having me. Again, the convention is Saturday, May 21st at Hampden-Sydney College. And the convention, you do have to pre-register. There is a filing period for each of the 24 cities and counties that have now expired.
It’s about 2,000 registered delegates. It’s a representative democracy where you go and represent your county and you cast your votes. That’s almost like the Electoral College that determines what portion of your county or city’s votes go to whichever candidate you’re voting for.
So it will be Saturday, May 21st. We’re still very confident about our positioning for it. I’ll just say this, John, in a much stronger position than we were two years ago when I told you we had over 60 percent of the delegates going into the convention when I was the challenger. We are in a much stronger position?
I even hesitate to even say that because everybody’s got to show up and vote. Nobody has any votes yet. Nobody is bound to either candidate. Folks will get there and they’ll get to hear a speech from each candidate and cast their votes.
But we were very thankful for how the people have responded and overwhelmingly indicated through the registrations that they support my renomination as the Republican candidate for the general election.
Fredericks: And there are only two candidates in the race. So it’s not like we’re going to multiple ballots or anything.
Good: That’s correct. It will be one vote. It will be a shorter day. It’ll be a fun day, Republicans coming together. It’ll be a day, a kind of kick-off official general election campaign. And again, very thankful for the support that we received.
Fredericks: And let me ask you this, are there any other things being decided that day, like district conventions, like the 5th district convention chairman or anything?
Good: There will be officially the approval of the only one candidate with Rick Buchanan out of Mecklenburg County who is an outstanding candidate for district chair. As you know, every district changed a little bit with the reapportion or realignment due to the census that’s required every 10 years.
And the 5th district changed quite a bit. We got eight new cities and counties that we didn’t have previously. We kept about two-thirds of the district, picked up about a third. But our previous chairman, Melvin Adams, he’s in the portion of Bedford County that we lost, so he wasn’t able to continue to serve.
So Rick Buchanan is the only candidate, so there won’t be a contest there. There will be some minor procedural stuff that will be decided that day. But primarily it will be about just nominating the candidate for the general election.
Fredericks: And that’ll be May 21st at Hampden-Sydney College. Now, if people just want to go there, even if they’re not a delegate, can they just go and feel like they’re a part of it and they go in as observers?
Good: Yes. Absolutely. It’s open. Folks can come and enjoy the day. It’ll be a festive day, lots of Republican red, and it’ll be a fun time. Frankly, they’re limiting the candidate speeches to 10 minutes each. It won’t be a long time speaking.
I heard one of the folks in the district committee say, hey, let them get up there, say their piece, sit down, and let us vote. And so that’s what will happen. But really, John, it’s the highest level of an election integrity because you have to pre-register to be qualified by your county.
When you get there on convention day, you have to check in with your ID. Both campaigns mark you off their respective lists to confirm that you’re a qualified voter. You’ve got multiple people from both campaigns, as well as the district committee supervising and watching the vote counting.
But it is, again, it represents democracy at its finest and is a great responsibility that you have to represent your county. But by the time you get there, you have met the candidates.
It’s retail politics at its best. You have to recruit delegates, John, think about it. Just show up, spend half a day there, travel a little bit. They’re invested, they’ve done their homework. They vetted the candidates. They’re highly informed.
It’s a little bit different than folks just on a primary day who just, hey, you see a sign up. It’s voting day. Hey, who did I vote for last time? Or who’s the incumbent?
Or who hands me a flyer on the way in? This is a much deeper level of vetting and assessing the candidates and doing your homework and then being willing to just show up. And I think it allows the Republican Party to do a better job choosing their nominee than, frankly, they do in the primary process.
But the 5th district committee, each district committee selects its nominating process, and it’s not unanimous, near-unanimous. Even my opponent, who is the chairman of the Charlottesville Republican Committee, voted for the convention also, feeling like, I guess, that was his best opportunity for the nomination.
I don’t know the reason why, but it was an overwhelming and almost unanimous support by the district committee to have a convention again this time.
For more information visit bobgoodforcongress.com
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