McGuire facing challenger Lockhart in race for 56th District House of Delegates seat

Republican Del. John McGuire will face a young progressive Democratic challenger, Blakely Lockhart, in the 56th District House of Delegates race Tuesday.

McGuire is seeking a third term after being elected in 2017 following the retirement of Republican incumbent Peter Farrell.

Recently, Lockhart and McGuire have clashed over his presence in Washington during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. McGuire has said he attended Donald Trump’s rally but did not go inside the Capitol and was not present when the violence began.

On Oct. 28, Lockhart retweeted a photo that showed McGuire, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, near an area where men wearing paramilitary gear were “confronting police.” The newspaper said McGuire’s campaign stood by its earlier statement while Lockhart described it as evidence the delegate was “much closer to the horrors that unfolded.”

In addition to the northwest portion of Henrico, the 56th House includes parts of Goochland, Spotsylvania, Orange, and Louisa counties. The district is about 71% white, 11% Asian American and 10% Black, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

Dr. Richard Meagher, a political science professor at Randolph-Macon College who authors the RVA Politics website, described the 56th as a largely rural “red-meat Republican” district where the culture and ideology has not faced the same demographic shifts toward a “Blue wave” as elsewhere in Virginia. He described it as a "really tough challenge to unseat a popular incumbent in that district.”

That has not deterred Lockhart, who was nominated without opposition. At 23, she is one of the youngest people ever to run for the Virginia House of Delegates and if elected would be among the first of Generation Z to represent in the House. She also would be the first woman of color to represent her district, she said in an interview.

“The values my family functions by are hard work, family and service to the community,” Lockhart said. Her desire to serve her community began as a Girl Scout and continues in every aspect of her life.

In a statement, McGuire said that if re-elected, he will “continue focusing on the issues that matter to Virginians including robust funding for our law enforcement, keeping CRT [critical race theory] out of our schools, and bolstering our economy to help create good paying jobs for hard working Virginians.

“The most important thing Virginians can do right now is get out and vote for our Republican ticket on Nov. 2nd to end the one-party rule in Richmond.”

McGuire’s campaign has raised over $530,000; Lockhart’s has brought in more than $111,000, according to VPAP.

McGuire currently sits on the Education and House Privileges and Elections committees, his second term in both. McGuire has sponsored a number of bills, including VAHB2086, which exempts prospective employees and volunteers of some child care providers from statutory background checks if the individual completed a check within the last five years with certain conditions, according to Billtrack50.com.

Lockhart said the pandemic’s impact on her community and her dissatisfaction with McGuire’s positions on Medicaid expansion, teacher pay raises, and school lunch funding prompted her to run.

Lockhart is a graduate of Glen Allen High School and graduated from Christopher Newport University in 2020 with a major in neuroscience and a minor in leadership.

While at CNU, Lockhart led protests following the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The NAACP then asked her to reactivate the organization’s campus chapter, she said.

“I reactivated a civil rights organization, pulled all kinds of people together, had effective discussions and started feeling a big impact,” she said.

Lockhart said being part of Gen Z is an asset for her campaign. “We understand the urgency of acting now, and want change now. Most of generation Z isn’t represented [in government] right now,” she said, Her first priority if elected would be getting Healthcare for everyone given that we are still in a pandemic, Lockhart said.

McGuire told the Citizen that “the momentum and energy for my campaign has been incredible this year and we’re looking forward to another win.”

McGuire graduated from Henrico High School in 1988 and attended Okaloosa Walton Community College in Florida, according to his General Assembly web page.

On his website, McGuire prominently features his 10 years of service as a Navy SEAL and his founding of Seal Team Physical Training Inc. McGuire continues to run the physical fitness company he started 22 years ago and works as a motivational speaker specializing in the principles of teamwork and leadership, according to his campaign website.