Goochland at center of crowded Virginia 5th District race

Virginia’s 5th Congressional District now heads into both Democratic and Republican primaries on Aug. 4, after the General Assembly moved the state’s 2026 primary from June 16 under HB 29. Filing for U.S. House candidates closed May 26 at 5 p.m., and the district’s ballot includes an independent candidate as well as Republicans and Democrats.

For Goochland County, the race is not abstract. John McGuire, who lives in Goochland with his wife Tracy, is serving his first term in the House and remains closely identified with the county even as he represents a district that stretches far beyond it. He sits on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, giving the county a direct link to a member of Congress with a national portfolio and a local address.

The district itself runs from Charlottesville and the Piedmont south toward Danville and the North Carolina border, pulling in large parts of Southside Virginia and cities including Lynchburg. That geography makes the seat one of the most sprawling in the state, with voters in Goochland, the Richmond suburbs, Albemarle County, Prince Edward County and Pittsylvania County all folded into the same political map. Virginia’s election officials list the 5th as having both primaries, and the district is widely described as Republican-leaning.

McGuire enters the race with a familiar record in hand. He won the seat in 2024 by defeating Democrat Gloria Witt with 57.26 percent of the vote, then secured the Republican nomination earlier that year by beating Bob Good by 370 votes out of 62,802 cast after a recount. That narrow primary margin still hangs over the seat and shows how quickly the district can turn competitive inside one party before the general electorate weighs in.

The 5th District’s shape has also become part of the story. Cardinal News reported in February that a proposed redistricting map would have moved 87.9 percent of McGuire’s constituents into another district and placed his Goochland home in a new 7th District, a change that would have reset the geography of his reelection campaign. For now, though, the contest is fixed on the current 5th, where McGuire faces Melanie Lucero on the Republican side and Suzanne Krzyzanowski, Tom Perriello, Robert Tracinski and Gabriella Bedsworth among the Democrats. For Goochland, that means its best-known federal officeholder remains one of the most visible names in a district race that will decide who carries the county’s political weight to Washington.