HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER ERIC CANTOR LOSES VIRGINIA GOP PRIMARY IN STUNNING UPSTE, AP REPORTS
FoxNews.com
6/10/2014
Primary Stunner: House Majority Leader Eric Cantor Loses to Underdog Tea Party Challenger
After being all but counted out, tea party activist David Brat pulled off a stunning victory against House Majority Leader Eric Cantor Tuesday in the Virginia GOP primary for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Associated Press reports.
With 202 of 243 precincts reporting, Brat lead Cantor 56 to 44 in the race. The AP was the first to call the contest for Brat…
Virginia Primary Results: Eric Cantor Defeated By Tea Party Challenger Dave Brat
…Cantor is facing a feisty challenge from Dave Brat, whom Slate’s Dave Weigel describes as “a professor running a libertarian-funded program at his school and running against Cantor for his debt ceiling votes and refusal to rule out immigration reform.” Cantor has gone after Brat and tried to brand him as a “liberal college professor.” Cantor is widely expected to beat Brat, but the the tea-party-backed Brat and his vocal supporters have still been a thorn in the side of the congressman…
Update: Kristina Ribali (Foundation for Government Accountability) on Facebook:
Update 2: At Instapundit:
I CREDIT THE POWER OF MICKEY KAUS, who’s been pushing his opponent for weeks: Eric Cantor Loses Primary in Massive Upset. If he hadn’t supported amnesty, he’d be cruising to an easy victory. I suspect a lot of folks on both sides of the aisle just lost enthusiasm for an immigration deal.
VIRGINIA, June 10, 2014– An earthquake just struck establishment Republicans in Washington DC, and no one saw it coming. The GOP’s second most powerful lawmaker, Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was just defeated by David Brat.
A few bullet-points on Brat…
Update 3: Why I want to replace Eric Cantor, by Dave Brat, written 2/19/2014
…Tighter control of what they have is more important to the beltway Republicans and their short-sighted corporate friends than winning a majority. Their real objective is control. They view Tea Party, conservative and libertarian-leaning Congressmen and Senators as the menace, not Democrats. To secure control beltway Republicans have launched an unprecedented assault on dissenters. This assault will be increasingly intense as the 2014 primary season unfolds.
This insatiable desire for control, coupled with a sincere disdain for the conservative grassroots, explains why our “leadership” continues to take mind-boggling positions on issues long cherished by the left, such as amnesty, and why opposition to additional bloated government programs often seems contrived. The unfortunate truth is that control for Eric Cantor and establishment Republicans means cozying up to the comfy nexus of mega-big-business with mega-big-government…
Earthquake: The Cantor Story That Caught The Political World By Surprise (video)
Earlier today in the Capitol, Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s press aides did not seem the least bit perturbed. Virginia political guru Larry Sabato’s political newsletter said the question was whether he would get 60 percent. Even Breitbart – one of the only publications to cover the race seriously – downplayed primary challenger David Brat’s chances of victory.
But as the results began to stream in, the entire political world watched with utter shock: the sitting Majority Leader was being deposed by a political novice economics professor with no money.
In a election cycle about the Establishment striking back, one of the most shocking electoral upsets in modern history happened while the the political world was yawning.
The story about how David Brat pulled off such a monumental surprise win starts, and almost ends, with immigration. Throughout the campaign, Brat was relentless in his attacks on Cantor over the issue. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of illegal alien children were streaming across the border, creating a border security crisis.
Cantor was ham-handed in his handling of the issue. He quietly backed an effort to pass the “ENLIST Act,” which would grant amnesty to “DREAMers” who enlist in the military, then turned sharply and took credit for blocking it from a floor vote. He issued campaign literature touting himself as an anti-amnesty warrior, then took to a radio interview to call the principles of the DREAM Act “biblical.”
Meanwhile, Brat took every opportunity to drive the issue home, even engaging in wild hyperbole towards the end of the campaign. (He said no member of Congress had done more to enact amnesty than Cantor, for example, leaving behind immigration stalwarts like Chuck Schumer.)
Cantor’s attack ads on Brat also seemed to land with a thud. They accused Brat of working with Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine to raise taxes because Kaine had appointed him to a board of economic advisers. But the board, it turned out, was a macroeconomic forecasting panel – not something that had anything to do with policy.
Perhaps the most staggering fact about the upset is that Cantor did not, even remotely, take the race for granted. He spent millions and campaigned hard. Many of the incumbents who have lost their seats didn’t realize the threat was coming until it was there. Cantor seemed to know what he was facing, just not how to handle it.
The Brat victory leaves a giant vacuum in House leadership, something that will be resolved over the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, the premature obituaries of the Tea Party’s political prowess are as dead as Eric Cantor’s political career.
