POWHATAN, Virginia — Rep. John McGuire (R-VA) is not running away from President Donald Trump.
Even as Democrats target his Virginia district to capitalize on a favorable 2026 environment, McGuire is doing the opposite of Republicans in some competitive races, who are softening their ties to Trump. Rather than downplaying the president, McGuire is making Trump’s record central to his reelection case.
At a recent campaign stop in Powhatan, McGuire offered a full-throated defense of the Trump agenda in an exclusive interview with the Washington Examiner, pointing to border security, tax cuts, manufacturing investment, and what he described as a dramatic reduction in crime and drug trafficking.
Rep. John McGuire (R-VA) speaks to the Washington Examiner on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026 in Powhatan, Virginia. (Barnini Chakraborty/Washington Examiner)
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Rep. John McGuire (R-VA) speaks to the Washington Examiner on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in Powhatan, Virginia. (Barnini Chakraborty/Washington Examiner)
“We’re moving the ship in the right direction,” McGuire said. “It takes a while.”
Fellow Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was also at the event, located at a restaurant about 20 miles west of Richmond, and told the group it was imperative to keep McGuire in office so the president could continue his agenda.
The message comes as former Rep. Tom Perriello tries to reclaim Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, a seat he narrowly won in 2008 before losing reelection two years later.
Virginia’s 5th is not normally considered a competitive district. Trump carried it by roughly 12 percentage points in 2024, and Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears carried it by about 8 points in 2025. Earlier this month, the Cook Political Report changed its rating of the district from “Solid Republican” to “Likely Republican.”
Democrats are investing in Perriello, betting that a national backlash against Trump could overcome the district’s Republican roots. Democrats have also targeted other Virginia Republican seats, including the state’s 1st and 2nd Districts, as part of a broader effort to regain control of the House.
McGuire’s answer is essentially: Bring it on.
He points first to successes at the border.
“On the big scale, we secured the southern border,” McGuire said.
He also touted the Republican legislation signed by Trump, highlighting provisions that eliminate federal taxes on tips and overtime and reduce taxes on Social Security income. McGuire said he is hearing directly from businesses in his district that the policies are having an impact, citing a manufacturing company where the parking lot is fuller, and employees are volunteering for additional overtime. He also pointed to what he described as roughly $20 billion in investment negotiated for his district and nearly 7,000 high-paying jobs.
A sign at a Rep. John McGuire (R-VA) campaign event in Powhatan, Virginia, on Sept. 25, 2026. (Barnini Chakraborty/Washington Examiner)
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A sign at a Rep. John McGuire (R-VA) campaign event in Powhatan, Virginia, on Sept. 25, 2026. (Barnini Chakraborty/Washington Examiner)
That is the basic argument McGuire is making for a second term: Trump is delivering both nationally and locally.
McGuire said the country’s murder rate is at a 126-year low and argued that falling fentanyl deaths and drug trafficking are evidence that the administration’s border and law enforcement policies are working.
He also described China as the country’s most significant strategic threat, arguing that the Chinese Communist Party views virtually everything as a potential weapon.
“If Xi Jinping said today no more fentanyl, there’d be no more fentanyl,” McGuire said, arguing that much of the precursor material used to make the drug originates in China before moving through Mexico.
McGuire’s broader message is that Republicans should not allow Democrats to define the election as a referendum on Trump. Instead, he wants voters to focus on what he considers tangible results, which extends to issues beyond Trump’s signature policies.
McGuire said his own second-term priority would be to make homeownership more attainable for younger Americans. His American Dream Act would provide a five-year capital-gains tax exemption for homeowners 65 and older who sell their property to a first-time buyer.
“I think we just need more time,” McGuire said.
He said he spent months asking people under 30 whether they owned a home and whether anyone they graduated with owned one.
“Almost all of them said no,” he said.
The housing issue gives McGuire a way to broaden his reelection message without backing away from Trump.
But Perriello is betting that voters will see the race differently.
The former congressman, 51, has pointed to voters who have become less attached to either party as a potential opening.
“People who had thought they belonged to the red team or the blue team for some time … are looking at the landscape and wondering whether they have a team at all,” Perriello told the Washington Examiner.
He describes the district he won in 2008 as a “July Fourth popsicle,” with Charlottesville at the top, more competitive territory in the middle, and deep economic and political disaffection in the southern end.
Today, he said, the district looks more like “shattered glass,” with counties containing a mix of voters increasingly skeptical of being told they belong to one political team or another.
Perriello is trying to make the campaign about healthcare and the cost of living, particularly the challenges facing rural communities.
“People care about their families more than they care about their party affiliation,” Perriello said.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has identified Perriello as a top-tier candidate in its effort to win back the House.
But McGuire argues that Perriello is the one who has changed.
“He was voted out,” McGuire said. “He got fired.”
McGuire accused Perriello of changing his positions to fit his political ambitions, pointing specifically to abortion and guns.
When Perriello ran for Congress in 2008, McGuire said, he presented himself as a pro-life, pro-gun Democrat. McGuire said Perriello later apologized for his position on abortion during his 2017 campaign for governor and criticized the National Rifle Association.
“He’s a flip-flopper,” McGuire said. “When I see him, I’ll give him a pair of flip-flops.”
The district’s transformation complicates Perriello’s challenge since his one term in Congress. Charlottesville has become more Democratic, while rural areas have moved sharply toward Republicans.
Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, previously told the Washington Examiner that under the district lines in place in 2008, Republican presidential nominee John McCain carried the district by about 3 points, even as he lost nationally by roughly 7 points. In 2024, Trump performed about 10 points better in the district than he did nationally.
Therefore, Perriello needs overwhelming margins in Charlottesville while cutting into Republican advantages elsewhere.
Democratic strategist Jay Satterfield said the goal is not to turn rural Virginia blue.
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“The thing I’d watch isn’t whether rural Virginia suddenly turns blue; it won’t,” Satterfield told the Washington Examiner. “It’s whether Democrats can shave enough off those Republican margins while generating huge turnout and margins in their strongholds.”
McGuire, meanwhile, is betting that Trump’s voters will stay with him even in a midterm election — and that the administration’s policies will help him win.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
