Virginia election a cliffhanger between congressman, Trump-endorsed challenger

Virginia state Sen. John McGuire seemed to edge out Rep. Bob Good in the Tuesday race for the state’s 5th Congressional District. McGuire gathered 50.3 percent of the vote, according to unofficial results. Good is chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. McGuire was a strong challenger and was endorsed by former President Donald Trump.

Elsewhere, Trump-endorsed candidates carried the day. In Oklahoma, incumbent Rep. Tom Cole came away with nearly two-thirds of the vote to win the Republican primary election. The leading challenger, businessman Paul Bondar, had deep pockets and claimed to be the real Trump supporter, even though Cole had Trump’s endorsement. In the Georgia primary runoff, former Trump adviser Brian Jack beat state Sen. Mike Dugan for the state’s third district seat.

How did the presumptive presidential candidates gather votes on Tuesday? Trump and President Joe Biden sailed to easy victories in Virginia, Oklahoma, and Georgia on Tuesday night. Even so, more than 20 percent of voters in Oklahoma opted for other candidates instead of Biden. In Virginia, 35 percent of voters chose to put their support behind former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, even though she dropped out of the race earlier this year. Haley garnered 15 and 13 percent of the vote in Oklahoma and Georgia, respectively.

Dig deeper: Read Christina Grube’s report in The Sift about CNN’s list of rules for its upcoming presidential debate in Atlanta.