The House Freedom Caucus elected a new chairman on Monday night, picking Rep. Bob Good, R-Va., as the hardline conservative group’s leader for 2024.
Good was one of eight House Republicans who voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in early October.
“No comment tonight,” Good told reporters while leaving a Freedom Caucus meeting just minutes before 10 p.m.
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He was similarly coy earlier in the evening after a closed-door House GOP conference meeting. Asked by Fox News Digital of his policy goals if he became chairman, he said, “I’ll wait to talk about it after tonight.”
Good is a conservative who was elected in 2020 to Virginia’s red-leaning 5th Congressional District, which is mostly rural but includes part of Charlottesville.
He is expected to have significant sway over House GOP policy as Freedom Caucus chair, with the group wielding outsized influence so far in Republicans’ razor-thin House majority.
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The group’s current chairman is Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a close ally of former President Trump’s. Leaving the Monday night meeting, Perry was asked by Fox News Digital whether he had any advice for Good.
“Be true and be bold,” Perry said, adding that he hoped Good would “lead better” as his successor.
Good’s relationship with leadership has, so far, been more fraught than Perry’s, as he was one of 20 House Republicans who forced McCarthy to go through 15 rounds of voting before winning the speaker’s gavel in January, months before finally voting to oust him.
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Perry said of that difference, “Past chairs, Jordan, Meadows, Biggs, kind of [grew] into the position. It’s not just about you and your own desires. You’re representing the group, the brand, and so you have to be open to maybe things that you wouldn’t be otherwise.”
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He would not say whether the friction with McCarthy would be a liability for the group’s negotiating power going forward.
“We’re all in this together. So we, you know, get over our personal differences and disagreements and focus on the country,” he said instead.
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