Because of an incendiary intra-party battle that denied renomination to Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman, Virginia's historically Republican 5th District could go Democrat on Tuesday.
The most recent poll from Public Policy Polling showed Democrat Cameron Webb edging Republican nominee Bob Good 46% to 43%. These findings echo the Global Strategy Group's finding in mid-October, which showed Webb ahead of Good 47% to 45%.
Larger than six states, the 5th District stretches from the Washington, D.C., suburbs to the North Carolina border. Democrats have held its congressional seat for only two of the last twenty years.
But now a Democrat is leading in the 5th District, past National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman and former Virginia Rep. Tom Davis told Newsmax, "because [Good] took out an incumbent congressman in a convention that the challenger and his supporters controlled. The party is badly split."
Good, a former athletic director at Liberty University, deposed Riggleman in a convention dominated by his fellow evangelical Christians. A libertarian conservative, Riggleman had President Donald Trump's endorsement for renomination. But the congressman's performing a marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple that had worked on his campaign was considered a decisive factor in his convention defeat.
Riggleman has yet to endorse Good, and the congressman's volunteers are frequently canvassing for other Republicans.
Webb, a physician, would be the first-ever Black congressman from a district that in 1968 gave a plurality of its votes to third-party presidential candidate and segregationist George Wallace.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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