Four of the five candidates in Fifth District primaries appear at Spring Creek forum

The primary election for Congressional elections in Virginia is coming up on June 18 and some of the candidates seeking their party’s nomination appeared at a forum on May 30 at the Spring Creek Golf Club. 

“Due to redistricting, we are all now in the Fifth District composed of 18 counties whole and six partial counties,” said Bob Babyok, a former member of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors  who served as moderator for the event. 

All three Democrats seeking the nomination and one of the two Republicans took part in the event. State Senator John McGuire is challenging Republican incumbent Bob Good but did not attend. 

“Mr. McGuire was contacted five different times and I never got a response back but I’ve left a seat open for him just in case he comes,” Babyok said.

McGuire did not show up. 

The three Democrats are Gloria Witt, Paul Riley, and Gary Terry. 

Babyok stressed at the beginning that the event was not intended as a debate. Each candidate had seven minutes to introduce themselves. Danville resident Gary Terry went first and initially eschewed the personal for the political. 

“Locally, we have food insecurities, we have housing insecurities, we have children and families that are suffering from trauma,” Terry said. “Nationally there’s an assault on our basic human rights guaranteed to us under the Constitution.” 

According to his campaign website, Terry is a 1982 graduate of West Point who served five years in the U.S. Army before entering the civilian workforce. 

“I’ve worked for two Fortune 500 companies in leadership roles,” Terry said. “I’ve worked for an international company, a Russian company, so I had the opportunity to spend some time in Russia. I’ve run two businesses and fourteen years ago I left the private sector and joined the nonprofit sector as a leader.” 

Terry said Representative Good voted against the Inflation Reduction Act and other bills that would have provided federal funding for infrastructure.

“He’s said that he would shut the government down to prove a point,” Terry said. “He’s floated the idea of cutting Social Security benefits to reduce our debt and more importantly he has refused to work with other members of Congress including those that are on the same side of the aisle.” 

Next up was Gloria Tinsley Witt, a native of Amherst County who grew up on a small farm. She said America’s strength is its diversity. 

“My values are family, faith, justice, and community-building,” Witt said. “My father was a union steelworker. My mom a domestic… who got a career as a cook in the police department in Amherst County.” 

Witt said she’s qualified to represent the Fifth District because she worked 32 years in corporate America and has been a small business owner for the last ten years doing work as an executive coach. She’s the president of the NAACP of Amherst County and serves in other leadership roles. (campaign website)

“I’m on the Board for the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance, tying business and workforce development to public school education,” Witt said. “I’m a member of the board for the Centra Health System, advocating for affordable health care.” 

Witt said she decided to run because she feels people’s rights are under attack and pointed to the overturning of Roe v. Wade as an example of a government taking away freedoms. 

“To me, that decision was driven by Christian nationalism and we need to call it what it is,” Witt said. “The right is weaponing Jesus against us. I am a Christian. I believe in pro choice, and every woman should have the right to make decisions over her body.” 

Paul Riley has lived in Crozet for the past 14 years but was born in a small community in New York state who spent 21 years in the Army. He is now an “Intelligence Solutions Lead” with a company called Prescient Edge. 

“I came to this fight because we need a change, and I mean a change for the better,” Riley said. “We need to get back the art of compromise. People say, ‘Oh, you sound like a Republican! Oh, you sound like a Democrat. I don’t even know what the hell that means. I sound like a person who wants to move the country forward.” 

Riley said there is a laundry list of issues that need to be addressed at the local, state, and federal levels of government. He said there needed to be higher taxes on those with more money to make room for relief for others.

“We need to make it so that the middle class gets a fair tax break,” Riley said. “I’m willing on day one to introduce the Middle Income Tax Equality Act to take the onus off of the middle class which is all of the people in here and put it back on the corporations and the people who are not paying their fair share.” 

Riley said he would defend Social Security benefits and called on a return to empathy. He took Representative Good to task for filing legislation that seeks to dismantle government functions such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and reduce funds for farmers distributed through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“I’m a firm believer in our agricultural system,” Riley said. “We need to have the infrastructure in place for our farmers. I call it digital agriculture, digital technology for agriculture that we need to have in place. We need high speed internet and broadband in this entire district. And the money is there. We just have to bring it to the district to make things better.”

Then it was time for incumbent Republican Bob Good who began with a quip.

“Does anyone else think that I should get 21 minutes?” Good said.

But Good didn’t have that much time. He had to leave the forum to meet with a man who had been arrested in the British islands of Turks and Caicos for packing ammunition in his bags for a trip. Good intervened in his official capacity. (read more on WTVR)

“I flew to Turks and Caicos two weeks ago because of how he was being detained egregiously for an accidental offense,” Good said. 

Good said he was not entitled to represent the Fifth District in the U.S. House and he was willing to stand again. In 2020, he won the nomination in a convention that saw the ouster of Republican incumbent Denver Riggleman. Good said he sought office as a “biblical and constitutional conservative.” (campaign website)

“Biblical meaning that is my worldview, that is where my values and principles come from,” Good said. “Constitutional? I actually believe we ought to pay attention to what the founders wrote in the Constitution and that the Constitution is not just a suggestion, it actually does matter.” 

The Constitution has been amended 27 times since being ratified with the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery and the notion that those enslaved counted only as three-fifths of a person for the purposes of the U.S. Census. 

Good took the time during the forum to say that the conviction of a former president on 34 felony counts was nothing more than the rigging of the election. This was met with applause and then derision.

“This is collusion between the Democrat party, the Biden White House, the Department of Injustice,” Good said before appealing to the timekeeper after some objected to what he said. 

Babyok then appealed to the crowd to allow Good to continue speaking. The incumbent claimed every American is worse off in 2024 than they were when Trump left office on January 20, 2021. He then decried illegal immigration and proceeded to make other critiques against the current administration. 

“Remember the $2 gas prices under President Trump?” Good asked. “Do you like the $4 gas prices that you’ve enjoyed under Joe Biden?” 

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the price of gasoline was lower for the administration of the 45th president and has trended upwards since. The lowest monthly average for the price of gasoline since 2010 was in February 2016 when Barack Obama was president at $1.872 a gallon.

Good blamed the current president for higher housing costs, inflation. When he again referred to Trump’s conviction in New York State for non-federal charges, there was again applause. 

At no point during his seven minutes did Good mention issues specific to the Fifth District which contains three cities in addition to the counties Babyok had mentioned. Good also chided his Republican opponent for not showing up to the event. 

“Once again, thank you for letting me be your Congressman,” Good said. “Thank you for the trust you’ve placed in me and I look forward to earning your vote again on June 18 and then again on November 5. Thank you and God bless you.” 

At the end of the forum, candidates went into separate corners to answer questions from attendees individually. 

Early voting is underway for the primary. 

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