GOP lawmaker blasts incoming freshman over allegations of presidential voter fraud

Rep. Denver Riggleman (R-Va.) on Wednesday slammed Rep.-elect Bob Good (R-Va.), who ousted him in a primary convention in July, for his accusations that the presidential election was stolen. 

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Good cast doubt on the integrity of the presidential election, alleging Democrats and the media used “COVID-19 as a smokescreen to ‘win’ the 2020 election by any means necessary,” citing unfounded claims of mass voter fraud and corruption. The rhetoric echoed the claims made by President Trump. 

“It strains credibility to believe that President Trump lost when Republicans gained so many House seats while no incumbents lost, maintained their lead in the Senate, and did well in statehouse elections across the country,” Good wrote. “President Trump received about 10 million more votes than he received four years ago, won nearly every bellwether county, and did significantly better with minority voters compared to 2016.” 

“It is historically difficult to defeat an incumbent president, and never before has a president ‘lost’ re-election with such a stellar economic record. It simply isn’t believable that Joe Biden so significantly outperformed Barack Obama to ‘receive’ a record number of votes. If we don’t fight to restore election integrity today, we may never win another national election,” Good added.

Riggleman — who has been one of the most vocal members in the GOP in pushing back on unfounded claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential race — took a swing at Good, who challenged Riggleman after he officiated a same-sex wedding for two of his campaign volunteers, accusing the incoming first-term lawmaker of hypocrisy for calling for strengthening campaign integrity given the circumstances of their primary race. 

“Calling for election integrity is rich coming from a guy who rigged a nomination fight at a church parking lot next to his house. Even the state GOP thought it was corrupt. Shouldn’t Bob just ‘get over the election results’? That’s what the ‘party’ told me,” Riggleman tweeted on Wednesday. 

The July nomination convention for Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, the largest district in the state, was conducted through a drive-thru at Tree of Life Ministries in Lynchburg, Va, with 3,500 delegates eligible to participate in the primary process. 

The Riggleman campaign, which advocated for a traditional primary instead of a convention amid the coronavirus pandemic, unsuccessfully attempted to appeal the location of the convention due to the close proximity to Good’s home and argued it was a corrupt process and “pay to play” to allow members of Good’s campaign to vote on the location plans.

Riggleman raised concerns voter fraud took place during the course of the primary convention.

“Voting irregularities and ballot stuffing has been reported in multiple counties in the #VA05. Voter fraud has been a hallmark of this nomination process and I will not stand for it,” Riggleman tweeted shortly after the results were announced. “@VA_GOP needs to reevaluate their priorities. We are evaluating all our options at this time.”

Good’s campaign denied allegations of voter fraud and accusations that actions were taken to slant the outcome in his favor. 

Riggleman was one of the first Republicans to recognize President-elect Joe Biden was the winner of the race as a number of GOP lawmakers have remained reluctant to do so.