Live from Virginia Thursday 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 House Delegates member John McGuire to talk about why he’s running for Virginia state Senate and getting Governor Youngkin’s tax cut passed through the Senate.
Fredericks: Joining us now, House of Delegates member John McGuire, ran for Congress. Also, John McGuire is now a candidate for state Senate in Virginia in a district that is an open district now with the redistricting, just back from the General Assembly and back from the special session that went nowhere. And he’s with us now, John McGuire. Hey, John, thanks for being with us.
McGuire: Hey, good morning, John. How are you this morning?
Fredericks: Fantastic! I’m going to get the General Assembly in a minute, but I want to start with your Senate race. Tell us about that.
McGuire: Redistricting threw us all for a loop and moved a lot of people into the same district. It took people away. For five years I’ve represented everyone in Louisa County. And the redistricting took me away from all of them.
And most of the people that I know in Goochland County where I live, took me out of that district as well. God’s got a plan. There’s this open Senate district 10. It’s a plus-30 Republican district.
It includes Hanover County, Louisa, Goochland, Powhatan, Amelia, Fluvanna, Cumberland, Buckingham, Apamatic, and a little bit of Prince Edward. So I’ve lived here, was born here, and represented here. So I think God’s got a plan. I think it makes sense.
Fredericks: John, who else is in that race on the Republican side?
McGuire: There’s only one person that I know of right now. It’s a supervisor in Louisa County.
Fredericks: Who’s that?
McGuire: His name is Duane Adams.
Fredericks: I know Duane. Nice guy. Look, nobody’s going to outwork John McGuire. Nobody’s going to get things done morethan John McGuire. Let me just tell you about John. In Virginia, in the Trump campaign, both 2016 and 2020, if there was one guy that I could count on as chairman, it was John McGuire.
He had that truck. He had the Trump flags on the back of it. Anything we asked him to do, he was there, plus one. And as a fighter. John, tell us a little bit about your background.
McGuire: I guess you know, I was born and raised in central Virginia, graduated high school there and was a Navy SEAL. I served 10 years as a Navy SEAL in Europe, Asia, South, Central America, and other places. I got out in September 1998.
I started a business called SEAL Team PT. It’s an outdoor fitness class. We do fitness classes in Washington, D.C., every day, Richmond, Virginia, every day, and in the West End. And one day a high school football coach said, well, you teach our team leadership. And by luck, they won a state championship.
And you have a small part of it. But then now we’ve trained Division One football teams like Penn State, basketball teams like Texas, BCU, and many others. And then, of course, in 2017, I got a phone call saying “you say you love your country, you should run for the Virginia House of Delegates.”
And my first thought was, SEALs don’t do politics. But I got to tell you, for five years, it’s been an honor to serve. I’ve met people like you and everybody else that are fighting to preserve our Republic. And so I see the state Senate as a way to continue service to our country.
Fredericks: Well, listen, I don’t know who else is in the race. I know the fellow you mentioned. Nice guy. But you’ve got my endorsement right off the bat because I know, one, nobody’s going to outwork you.
I know, two, you’re going to get the state Senate and fight for our values and not back down and not play games, as you did in the House. You’re proven. And look, this is a Republican seat.
So I want to get a Republican in there that we can depend on. And that would be John McGuire. This is a Republican seat. I’m not going to take a chance with some RINO that might vote this way or vote that way or want to curry favor at the Chamber of Commerce meetings. Not interested, John.
The country is hanging by a thread. So I’m all in for your Senate race, 100 percent. All in. No question. Tell me about, how do we get Youngkin’s tax cut passed with the Democratic plus-one state senate, Virginia?
McGuire: You know what? We have $5 billion in the Republican House budget where Youngkin wants to put $5 billion in tax put money back in your pocket. The Democrats think they can spend it better.
And they tried on Monday to change the rules where he couldn’t introduce legislation, but Winston Sears stood up and proved they would be against the Constitution.
So Youngkin put in a bill. And that bill is carried by Sarah Durant, who is also a member of the House of Delegates running for state Senate.
And she’s putting a bill to give everybody a gas tax relief, which is what we desperately need because of these ridiculous Biden policies that are destroying natural gas and everything else. Gas under Trump was under $2, and I think it was up to $4.30 last month or something like that.
So how are we going to do it? I think they’re losing big-time in the midterms. And I think that the fact that they didn’t fight or bust the system so much on Monday, I think we’re going to come to an agreement on that.
Fredericks: So you need two votes to get the Youngkin tax cut passed. You need two Democratic votes in the state Senate. You got one. Morrissey, who’s my roommate at our world headquarters, shares an office with us, has his office space he leases out, has his own show, as you know, fighting show.
Comes back on April 18. You need two votes. You got Morrissey. You’re going to need a second vote after it comes out of conference. Youngkin is going to do his amendment. It comes back. Who’s your second vote?
McGuire: Well, I got to tell you. I think you’re right. I think Morrissey realizes people are hurting, but he’s not the only one. But I think that even Louise Lucas is going to, I think she’s going to break down a little bit.
She’s probably the last person you think would break down, but they’re holding certain bills hostage on the House side and the Senate side. And if she’s going to get anything done, she’s going to have to compromise on that.
Fredericks: You got to be kidding me. You think you can get Louise Lucas?
McGuire: I don’t think she will personally do it, but she has control of other people in the Senate. And so she’ll be able to put her hands up and say “I had nothing to do with it.” But she realizes she’s not going to get anything done if they don’t (Untelligible audio).
Listen to the full interview here:
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Photo “John McGuire” by John McGuire and photo “Glenn Youngkin” by Glenn Youngkin.
