Thread: House Majority Leader Cantor defeated in primary

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was defeated Tuesday by a little-known economics professor in Virginia's Republican primary, a stunning upset and major victory for the tea party.
Cantor is the second-most powerful member of the U.S. House and was seen by some as a possible successor to the House speaker.
His loss to Dave Brat, a political novice with little money marks a huge victory for the tea party movement, which supported Cantor just a few years ago.
Brat had been a thorn in Cantor's side on the campaign, casting the congressman as a Washington insider who isn't conservative enough. Last month, a feisty crowd of Brat supporters booed Cantor in front of his family at a local party convention.
His message apparently scored well with voters in the 7th District.
"There needs to be a change," said Joe Mullins, who voted in Chesterfield County Tuesday. The engineering company employee said he has friends who tried to arrange town hall meetings with Cantor, who declined their invitations.
Tiffs between the GOP's establishment and tea party factions have flared in Virginia since tea party favorite Ken Cuccinelli lost last year's gubernatorial race. Cantor supporters have met with stiff resistance in trying to wrest control of the state party away from tea party enthusiasts, including in the Cantor's home district.
Brat teaches at Randolph-Macon College, a small liberal arts school north of Richmond. He raised just more than $200,000 for his campaign, according to the most recent campaign finance reports.
Beltway-based groups also spent heavily in the race. The American Chemistry Council, whose members include many blue chip companies, spent more than $300,000 on TV ads promoting Cantor. It's the group's only independent expenditure so far this election year. Political arms of the American College of Radiology, the National Rifle Association and the National Association of Realtors also spent money on ads to promote Cantor.
Brat offset the cash disadvantage with endorsements from conservative activists like radio host Laura Ingraham, and with help from local tea party activists angry at Cantor.
Much of the campaign centered on immigration, where critics on both sides have recently taken aim at Cantor.
Brat has accused the House majority leader of being a top cheerleader for "amnesty" for immigrants in the U.S. illegally. Cantor has responded forcefully by boasting in mailers of blocking Senate plans "to give illegal aliens amnesty."
It was a change in tone for Cantor, who has repeatedly voiced support for giving citizenship to certain immigrants brought illegally to the country as children. Cantor and House GOP leaders have advocated a step-by-step approach rather than the comprehensive bill backed by the Senate. They've made no move to bring legislation to a vote and appear increasingly unlikely to act this year.

Cantor, a former state legislator, was elected to Congress in 2000. He became majority leader in 2011.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...06-10-20-05-45

ERIC CANTOR PRIMARY LOSS A REFERENDUM AGAINST AMNESTY



by TONY LEE
10 Jun 2014,

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), who was in line to be the next House Speaker, shockingly lost his primary Tuesday to economics professor Dave Brat. In knocking Cantor off and shocking Washington and the GOP establishment, voters in Virginia's seventh congressional district may have killed amnesty legislation in this Congress.

The Associated Press called the race for Brat at 8:03 PM EST with around 85% of the vote in and Brat leading 55.8% to 44.2%.

In the final weeks of the campaign, Brat made the race completely about amnesty and open borders, saying a vote for Cantor would be a vote for "open borders" and the seventh district primary would be the "last chance" to stop amnesty.

Regarding amnesty legislation, voters told Cantor and Congress, "not so fast."

After anti-amnesty Republican Ann Coulter endorsed Brat, Laura Ingraham, who has relentlessly fought for American workers against amnesty on her national radio program, campaigned for him last week. Brat said on Breitbart News Sunday that 700 people showed up to the event and some even parked in Cantor's cul-de-sac.

In wanting to crush Brat, Cantor inadvertently elevated Brat's name identification. After Cantor's top ally got ousted from a top GOP chairmanship in his district last month, Cantor did not take anything for granted while Brat redoubled his amnesty attack. Cantor outspent Brat by more than ten to one during the last seven weeks of the campaign. Cantor spent nearly a million dollars, sending multiple deceptive anti-amnesty mailers ahead of the primary and ensuring his website made no mention of his previous support for amnesty and an increase in the number of high-tech visas. In endorsing Cantor, theRichmond Times-Dispatch did not even mention immigration at all. Brat's campaign spent only $76,000.

But Brat was relentless in his attacks on Cantor.

Cantor has proclaimed that "one of the great founding principles" of the country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents, which is why illegal immigrant minors should be given amnesty. Brat said that was "one of the most radical pro-amnesty statements ever delivered by a sitting representative." He blamed Cantor's words, which were also in the House GOP leadership's immigration principles, for attracting illegal immigrant children to the U.S. United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) National Council President Kenneth Palinkas made the same point months ago, arguing that if one of America's "great founding principles" is that illegal immigrant children should be granted amnesty, then Congress would have to award perpetual amnesty to the children of illegal immigrants.

The anti-Cantor We Deserve Better PAC ran ads warning voters that Cantor's next deal with Obama will be to give "amnesty and citizenship" to illegal immigrants, which Cantor confirmed in an interview with a local television station last Friday.

"But I have told the President there are some things that we can work on together," Cantor said in a Friday interview with a local television station. "We can work on the border security bill together. We can work on things like the kids."
As Breitbart News reported, "the kids" referred to Cantor's support for a bill that would grant amnesty to illegal immigrant children who came to the U.S. when they were children, which Cantor even said was "Biblical."

Breitbart Texas first reported that illegal immigrants were overwhelming the system and being warehoused in Texas, forcing the Obama administration to send them to bus stops in Arizona and neighboring states like Oklahoma. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) said these actions threaten America's national security.

Voters in Virginia's seventh district seemed to have enough of illegal immigration in sending shockwaves throughout the country on Tuesday.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...-Loses-Primary

Good to see him lose. Eric Cantor insults American citizens every time he plays his violin for illegal aliens.

Amazing upset! Thank you to the voters of this district, you give America hope that the rule of law may someday be restored and the establishment candidates can be sent back home.

Big thanks to all of you that played a role of support helping ALIPAC launch those ads against Cantor into his district! I just wish we had been able to raise enough money to saturate SC like we did in Cantor's district. Who knows, the results in SC could be in our favor as well!

W