Upset in Virginia District 7 (#VA07) — Eric Cantor loses to Dave Brat
Incredible and unexpected victory by Tea Party challenger who made amnesty an issue.
In a stunning “historic” upset, Professor David Brat upset Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Cantor: "It's disappointing, sure. But I believe in this country…"
— Sarah Boxer (@Sarah_Boxer) June 11, 2014
meet Dave Brat – the guy who beat Eric Cantor. @jparkABC caught up with him in DC a few weeks back. http://t.co/IHs6mfjQIz
— Rick Klein (@rickklein) June 11, 2014
And the best tweet of the night is >> @MattMackowiak "Thad Cochran had a rough night tonight." #va07 #MSSEN
— Legal Insurrection (@LegInsurrection) June 11, 2014
This is an object lesson on the scale of the destruction of Carthage. #Cantor #VA07
— Mike Gannon (@MikeCGannon) June 10, 2014
Note to media establishment: The #TeaParty is dead? No, no, no. Amnesty-supporting @EricCantor is: http://t.co/nJj72sM1lH
— Michael Johns (@michaeljohns) June 11, 2014
AP: Cantor goes down!!!!!! …OUT!!!
— Kelly (@KLSouth) June 11, 2014
From your lips…. MT @BenjySarlin Cantor losing makes immigration reform seem near impossible this year — there will be a panic after this
— Michael Graham (@IAMMGraham) June 11, 2014
100K votes in a primary? Operation Chaos? #VA07
— Jazz Shaw (@JazzShaw) June 10, 2014
IF this was a Dem operation (big IF) it would be genius. #VA07
— Jazz Shaw (@JazzShaw) June 10, 2014
Former Dem Rep's plan to unseat Cantor: http://t.co/QeImb53JZ4
— Jason Howerton (@jason_howerton) June 11, 2014
The Republican Party better take notice abt the role that #immigration played in #va07! #teaparty #gop
— Amy Kremer (@AmyKremer) June 11, 2014
Didn’t I read about the tea party dying in the mainstream media? Those crazy zombies.
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) June 11, 2014
Nah MT @TNYJohnCassidy Since nobody predicted the Cantor loss, maybe we should be a bit modest about predicting its consequences.
— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) June 11, 2014
DNC's Wasserman Schultz: When Eric Cantor..can't earn the Republican nomination, it's clear the GOP has redefined 'far right.'
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) June 11, 2014
Eric Cantor's defeat is an earthquake, attributable to one issue: voters DO NOT WANT open borders. Dems as well as GOP must pay attention.
— John Hinderaker (@jhinderaker) June 11, 2014
Cantor's friends are FURIOUS, said he was told by consultants that he was up 20-30 points, didn't need to worry…
— Robert Costa (@costareports) June 11, 2014
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Comments
A flat out rejection of amnesty.
The GOP had better wake up, fast.
Understanding that We The People, who are suffering from a chronic shortage of jobs and are sick of illegal aliens demanding full American rights, are rejecting amnesty needs to sink into the thick skulls of the D.C. RINO elites!
We don’t NEED immigration reform. We passed that law in 1986, which just needs to be ENFORCED! Period.
Rejection of amnesty? Maybe in that state but Lindsey just smacked down his tea-party challenger, without a fight, and his middle name is “Amnesty”.
Would Graham have won if he only had one primary challenger like you suggested? I think he had 4 or 5 or more.
Six.
Curiously, in a special primary on the same ballot, South Carolina’s other Senator, Tim Scott (a Tea Party favorite), out-polled Miss Lindsey by almost 60,000 votes.
Scott had only token opposition, and he was on the ballot for anyone who came out for the other contest, so it isn’t a fair comparison. He is popular but has yet to fully define himself for South Carolinians. Once he has, he will be even more popular. Tim’s been 100% consistent his entire career and is a genuine conservative reformer in the spirit of his mentors, Mark Sanford and also to a lesser extent Nikki Haley.
So much for the death of the Tea Party.
Seems to me the biggest issue for Cantor was what came out of his lips about immigration didn’t match his actions.
If this was a Dem operation, then they just killed amnesty and with it their permanent majority. Doh!
Soooo, Paul Ryan. I’d see a doctor about that sphincter rictus
Just in time.
Woohoo!!!! I got my wish from this morning’s post!!
Now, to learn more about this apparent Dem opponent, Trammell. By the looks of his website, he is a very last-minute, hastily manufactured neophyte opponent. And not well-funded, yet. According to his website, he works at the same college as Brat, Randolph Macon College, as a Sociology professor – or so it reads.
There are basically 3 block paragraphs, and nothing more that really defines him, or makes him a contender, IMHO.
Go Brat!!!! Congratulations on this HUGE upset win!!!!
Let’s hope that Brat will be the NEXT VA07 Congressional Representative come November!!!!!
And Cantor didn’t just lose, he got CREAMED! Make my day!
Finally some good news! This made my day!
Remember just a few short years ago Cantor was a rising ‘pub star? Then he hopped on the amnesty bandwagon. No sale, mi amigo! Maybe he’ll retire to Acapulco
Huge political upset and it may be just what the Republican Party needed. We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore!
The official meme will be that because VA is an open primary state, Democrats came out to vote for Brat and pushed him over the top. That, makes absolutely no sense. It’s a solidly republican district and his opposition in the general election doesn’t stand a chance. Democrats were more likely to support Cantor with his pro-immigration policies than send a guy to DC who opposes amnesty.
I hope this kills the amnesty-this-summer movement for good. Hello, Paul Ryan? Are you watching?
Now that Cantor is going away he can vote as he pleases. Let’s just hope his kicking in the balls was heard so loud that the leadership will get the message and table amnesty
actually was somewhat historical
https://twitter.com/conserv_voice/status/476536632112193537
last time sitting majority leader lost primary was 1899 per AP
from what I have read no “registered” tea party group supported him so he actually did it on his own through pure grassroots.
not sure this should be classified tea party win as the people that the media consider “tea party leaders” refused to help him.
I am not sure on any local TP groups there though.
many of these TP leaders need expunging, I’m pretty sure they have allowed the system to corrupt them.
Whether or not national Tea Party groups had thebfunds or the interest, or not, his platform is NOT a mainstream GOP type. And many people who support the TP came outbto help him. Laura Ingraham is one name I’ve heard, for example.
We heard Laura Ingraham on the radio on Monday. She was all over this race; of course, on Monday, I thought this would be in vain, like her support for Renee Ellmers’ primary opponent. But Ellmers managed to realize her mistake in time and walk it back. Cantor apparently didn’t take the issue or the opposition seriously.
My wife and I voted around 5:30pm for Brat in a nearly empty precinct. We could not drive to the end of our short driveway without hearing a dishonest Cantor commercial talking about how Brat was a “liberal college professor” when a more truthful statement would have been a “professor at a liberal arts college”. I expect better from my elected officials and those ads made me question Cantor not his opponent. Cantor was doomed by his pro-amnesty work, his negative ads, and Brat’s positions on issues.
The Tea Party is an idea, not a party. I know Democrats who identify with the Tea Party once they understand what they want. I hope everyone goes to the polls this year. We can’t afford any more of Obama’s plans to swamp the country with illegals. He’s making a crisis that will overwhelm the country’s ability to pay for it.
Cloward-Piven?
Ok, wait a minute. If poll after poll shows Americans are against amnesty, but representatives go for it anyway, is that any reason to vote them out? Now is it? If this keeps up this country will only become a democracy. Then even worse, it will become a Republic whereby the will of the people becomes law. Is that what we really want? Huh? Huh? Is it?
“The Tea Party” is a short set of fundamental American ideals held in common by grassroots voters, not an organization. The Tea Party exists whether there are TP orgs or not; those orgs are dependent on the Tea Party, not the other way around.
Brat himself attributed his victory to God working through the people, and to the Tea Party voters, in that order.
Brat had a lot of support from Ann Coulter, Laura Graham, and Mark Levin.
Amnesty is dead this year, Thad Cochran probably had to be taken to the ER, and John Boehner’s grip on the Speakership just had a bucket of Mazzola oil tossed on it.
Keep in mind though – Cantor won his seat way back when by only a .6 margin. He ran unopposed in 02, 04, 06, 08, and 10. In 12 he won big, but to a very weak candidate, and right after he was made majority leader. Cantor was largely untested as a candidate despite being in the House for 6 terms.
As for Lindsay Graham, the GOP estab loaded up his primary opponent slate with the 6 Dwarves, each to take 4-8% of the vote, but no single candidate able to get anywhere near the incumbent. Legal political rigging.
With any luck, Obama will now cut some executive order on immigration that will so piss off the electorate, he’ll do more good for the GOP this fall than his own party. I hope he does it – the borders are already wide slam open and he can’t do much more damage, except to Democrat fortunes.
I’m trying to think how the GOP can screw this up.
Laura Ingraham, duh.
I like your first paragraph best, Henry. I’ve heard people rant about the Tea Party, but when I ask them if they know who Rick Santelli is and how he really got the ball rolling, they have no idea who or what I’m talking about. Ignorance can be astonishing – and dangerous.
Not only was Henry’s first paragraph outstanding, he used a semi-colon.
You go ‘enry!!!
To Anchovy – Wait till I go full colon on your ass. Er, um, that didn’t sound right.
I saw Rick Santelli, on TV, back in Feb. 09, bellow out those now famous words. I wondered at the time if he was reading my stuff, my little tid-bit comments here and there, Townhall, for one, and I imagined, egotistically, that he’d gotten it from me. But I’ve decided since then that great minds think alike, and that this TeaParty idea sprang up organically, almost in unison, among a large number of us boomers who’d had their fill of the hippie culture that had ruined their youth and was now making serious inroads into the destruction of the entire country.
Send Brat more money. I am.
Thank you very much.
I’m trying to think how the GOP can screw this up.
We will stop thinking like that when the Tea-Party controls the GOP .
Control is mind-share. The rhino’s act and believe that they own that party. With this loss by Cantor, the shift in mind-share just took a swing from the rhino’s to the tea-party.
The “nothings” in the Republican Party (Hello Danial Webster Fla 10!) who only go with the flow will flow our way.
At that point the rhino’s have to do actual work and sell their principles.
The district since the redistricting effective in 2012 is more Republican than the old version.
BTW…. Cantor spent $2.5 million on this campaign. Brat? $40, 000.
Be nice to have a congressmen who knows how to get a bang for our bucks.
As they say, you can buy some of the elections all of the time, and all of the elections some of the time, but …
I am overjoyed that Cantor got various important body parts handed to him. And I hope that Cochran has the same thing happen in the Mississippi runoff.
However, we ARE dealing with Institutional Republicans. In Mississippi, we are seeing Cochran and Haley Barbour openly call for Democrats to vote in the Republican runoff to save Cochran. And Cochran’s teleprompter [he is literally too senile to speak extemporaneously] is attacking McDaniel in terms Democrats use. There is no way that Cochran can endorse McDaniel now in the General. So we can expect that in Mississippi, like the Institutionals always do, they will support the Democrat rather than the TEA Party Republican.
In VA-07, Cantor has the choice of running as a write-in in the General without party affiliation [and he would have unlimited Republican funds if he does and has 100% name recognition], or supporting the Democrat write in.
We have history on this. Expect the Republican Party to not support Brat or McDaniel [assuming he wins] at all. And to covertly and not so covertly support the Democrat.
And it may be that Cantor’s loss will motivate Boehner to move on Amnesty and Permanent Open Borders now, rather than wait till after the primaries are over.
Just being realistic. We cannot trust the Institutional Republicans any more than we can trust the Obama regime. Celebrate tonight, be ready to fight both sides tomorrow.
Well said.
In the words of Andrew Breitbart: #war.
I’m not so sure that the RINOs will get away with calling for Democrats to cross over in the runoff. Once that tactic came out of the woodwork in the last cycle and Luger lost, and then the RINOs took out Murdouck by enticing the Democrat vote in the General, there was MASSIVE backlash from that betrayal.
Remember the “Young Guns” were an outgrowth from Cantor’s staff. It’s entirely possible that the Conservatives had a long memory and decided to make sure that Cantor finally PAID for his treachery in making sure Mourdock lost.
Just try positioning any Republican candidate as a Tea Party Republican candidate in the general election where you’ll need Independent and on the fence democrat voters to win.
Don’t celebrate just yet.
Brat is an economics professor, maybe he can explain some things to Washington.
But the most he could have hoped for would have to make it close, and that was what most of my Virginia contacts expected. But Cantor got cocky and started talking about amnesty for kids this term, just before the latest news about thousands of kids/teens coming because Obama won’t deport them.
Incidentally, Brat contacted every national Tea Party group when he entered the race and none of them helped. This was all local people except for Laura Ingraham who came in to highlight Cantor’s weakness on immigration. AFAIK, Laura works for herself, not any of the TP groups.
But I see they take credit anyway, as usual.
“Incidentally, Brat contacted every national Tea Party group when he entered the race and none of them helped. This was all local people except for Laura Ingraham who came in to highlight Cantor’s weakness on immigration. AFAIK, Laura works for herself, not any of the TP groups.
But I see they take credit anyway, as usual.”
This is an important point that I hope you continue to push.
There are many independent local grassroots groups across the country like that the one I belong to that are anti-GOP but DO NOT operate under the TP banner because its become a brand that’s more obsessed with its name than its purported mission to market constitutionalism and economic liberty to non-partisan, independent voters in the general election!!!!
I am conflicted to point out that yours’ and other’s total confusion as to what the Tea Party is and isn’t, and what TP orgs are and are not that is making the Tea Party so successful.
With luck we’ll get McDaniel in MS and Dr. Milton Wolf in KS for November.
It wasn’t Democratic crossovers that won this race. Most in the district don’t remember who Ben Jones is/was, and most of those who do consider him a liberal idiot, which is of course true.
It was Cantor’s arrogance. He was strong enough that he could very probably have coasted with the nothing-burger campaign he was running. But he had to go in-your-face with amnesty after Brat kept raising the issue. And it blew up in his face instead.
Since this effectively gives Hensarling the “heir apparent” position whenever Boehner retires, it’s a definite plus for conservatives.
Exactly right. If the state Dem Party in VA could muster enough support to pull a successful Operation Chaos in the Cantor primary, they’d be able to put up a real candidate for the election. They do not and have not.
Cantor went wrong by saying one thing to get elected and doing another once in office. Hypocrisy is a losing attribute.
Hypocrisy has not been a losing attribute for obastard or Harry Reid.
Woohoo! Joy joy joy in the home state!
Cantor can look to obastard as the reason he lost. obastard’s deliberate importation of hundreds of thousands of illegals, mostly kids, that he’s been dumping on Jan Brewer and Rick Perry portends what is to come with the amnesty the GOP masterminds, of which Cantor has become one of, have been pushing. Their corporate buddies want a cheap, domestic labor pool for as far as the eye can see.
So, the Tea Party is all but dead. Hardly.
Further, labor unions don’t like it, and they are or will begin to pull away from the ‘rats by force from their membership when massive imported cheap labor becomes the massive threat to their existence that it’s shaping up to be.
The Commies say Cantor lost cuz the TP hates Jews. http://twitchy.com/2014/06/10/left-pivots-from-tea-party-is-dead-to-tea-party-hates-jews-after-cantor-loses/.
Hey, Wm, you must hate yourself, huh!
Listening to Brat in the Hannity interview, is like listening to Reagan. Optimistic, based on first principles, clear, confident intelligence, no fear, no pandering.
no.spin.
I loved the part where Brat explained he’s no far righty, he merely ran on the basic historical GOP platform – a platform the current GOP estab has largely left behind.
Ace has a piece up on the failure of the Tea Party groups. I fully agree with those who now say “those groups are NOT the TP!”
I only wish you all had been saying this with me all along, instead of standing quietly by as they pretended to speak for the Tea Party, including on cable news shows and with press releases. And somebody is sending these groups millions, which they then spend on themselves instead of candidates.
I attended rallies in 2009 and 2010, and the agenda was pretty simple and had wide support: no bailouts for companies or individuals, stop the debt explosion, cut spending. Then, in 2010, ObamaCare naturally became part of it. But there was not a single speech at any I attended promoting some of the other things I see from these groups – and assented to by many conservatives by their failure to speak up.
I also note that Brat went out of his way to reject the “Tea Party” label, although he thanked the local people for their support – equally with “the Republican grassroots” which he evidently sees as distinct – perhaps because none of the national people would even take his phone calls.
Many of the national TP orgs perhaps began with good intentions, but were gobsmacked by the money and power of endorsements and wandered from the mission to varying degrees, very similar to how orgs like Greenpeace, SPLC, and PETA began decently but got overtaken from members within who made these orgs unrecognizable to their origins.
As long as the US fails to address TP core issues of small gov, less taxes, balanced budget, and a strict construction of the Constitution, the Tea Party people will rise and vote for change. When their demands are met, we will relax and seem to disappear, with the emphasis on the word ‘seem’.
All political entities need to understand and accept that the Tea Party voters will never go away, but rise and fade as need indicates, while the GOP needs to understnad and accept that the original GOP values and principles were synonymous with current TP values and principles. Neither is ‘radical’, but who is it that has moved away from them?
Estragon: “I also note that Brat went out of his way to reject the “Tea Party” label, although he thanked the local people for their support – equally with “the Republican grassroots” which he evidently sees as distinct – perhaps because none of the national people would even take his phone calls.”
It was only the nat’l TP orgs that ignored Brat, considering Cantor unbeatable. However, the local TP people were all over Brat’s campaign, doing the legwork and getting the vote out. During his phone interview with Hannity, Brat specifically thanked God and the Tea Party, in that order. Brat recognized the difference between the many bastardized TP orgs and the actual TP as a collection of people with certain principles.
[…] As the dust settles on the congressional primary race results that saw Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor defeated by a little known challenger, many pundits are offe… […]