The internal GOP feud growing in Virginia’s 5th Congressional District intensified Monday after at least four Republican members of the district’s GOP Committee were thrown out, and another resigned, after refusing to sign renewed loyalty pledges for the party’s far-right nominee, according to reports.
State Sen. John McGuire has caused friction among Republicans in his congressional race since beating out House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-VA) in the primary earlier this year. His presence as the party’s congressional candidate for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District already spurred 25 Republican officials to urge former President Donald Trump to reconsider his endorsement of McGuire, according to the Virginia Mercury.
Now at least five members of the Republican Party of Virginia’s GOP Committee have been removed, including its former vice chair, who the publication says told members in an email Sunday that the party’s decision to demand the renewed pledges was “unwarranted, unprecedented and unauthorized.”
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Herring’s email to committee members alleged that top party officials decided to “dictate" to committee members who had signed the Trump letter that they would have to “sign a loyalty oath or get kicked out” of the Republican Party," according to the Mercury.
“In fact, it is very similar to the actions of prosecutors against Donald Trump. They make up allegations, find a politically weaponized judge, and then convict him knowing that all of this will probably be overturned on appeal,” Herring wrote in the email obtained by The Mercury.
Herring’s account is disputed by RPV Chair Rich Anderson, who referred to it as “a loyalty statement” because “a number of our congressional district committee chairs were concerned that perhaps not all were going to support McGuire.”
Despite the internal struggles, McGuire is leading in the polls in the conservative district by at least 10 percentage points, according to FiveThirtyEight. He faces Democrat Gloria Witt in November.