Bob Good, a senior associate athletics director and the chief fundraiser for athletics at Liberty University, says he will launch a primary bid against freshman Republican Rep. Denver Riggleman, The Hill reported Tuesday.
Bob Good, primary challenger to Denver Riggleman for Virginia's 5th Congressional District. Good is senior associate athletic director at Liberty University. Photo: Official Liberty University portrait
Riggleman, who represents Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, has drawn criticism from the Rappahannock County Republican Party for supposedly “abandoning party principles” on issues such as immigration and fiscal spending. The criticism from that Republican group and others came shortly after Riggleman officiated at a wedding for a same-sex couple -- a fact Riggleman has pointed to as reason for his censure. In an interview with The Hill, Good accused Riggleman of “ignoring President Trump's policy on American jobs for American workers, and even restricting the ability of ICE to do their jobs.”
Interestingly enough, Good does not appear to have the support of Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. An ardent supporter of Donald Trump, Falwell endorsed Riggleman in a letter on Sept. 4 and addressed the issue of Riggleman officiating a wedding for a gay couple by stating, “I believe that excluding other conservatives over issues that have already been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court does nothing but help liberals gain more power.” (Meanwhile, Liberty University has a long anti-LGBTQ record.)
Falwell himself was recently the subject of criticism from his own conservative base. In a Politico feature, more than two dozen former and current university officials accused Falwell of creating a culture of fear and self-dealing at Liberty University, something Falwell has denied.
