Thread: A Long Shot So Long, the Tea Party Took a Pass

A Long Shot So Long, the Tea Party Took a Pass

David Brat Waged Solo Fight Against Eric Cantor

By DAVID S. JOACHIM JUNE 11, 2014



Dave Brat addressed supporters after defeating House majority leader, Eric Cantor, in the Virginia Republican primary on Tuesday.CreditP. Kevin Morley/Richmond Times-Dispatch, via Associated Press


WASHINGTON — David Brat, the man who derailed Representative Eric Cantor’s congressional career and aspirations to become speaker of the House, faced such long odds in his challenge to the No. 2 House Republican that he failed to win the backing of any of the major Tea Party groups that inspired his candidacy.

“I met with all of them,” Mr. Brat said in a February interview with

The New York Times. “But it’s tough. Everybody just wants to see the polls, how much money you’ve raised. But they do not know what’s going on on the ground.”

His relative anonymity outside Henrico, the swing-voting Virginia county that encompasses the suburbs north of Richmond, probably contributed to the difficulty Mr. Brat had in rounding up conservative support despite meeting with powerful groups and donors to try to persuade them that he was worth the investment.

Despite running a decidedly anti-establishment campaign in which he criticized government bailouts and budget deals and frequently invoked God and the Constitution, Mr. Brat was unable to secure the endorsement of Tea Party groups with national networks, a sign of how under the radar his candidacy was. With FreedomWorks, Tea Party Express and Tea Party Patriots all staying out of the race, Mr. Brat raised just over $200,000.

Mr. Brat’s positions are sure to get more attention as he heads into the general election against the Democratic nominee, Jack Trammell, who, like Mr. Brat, is a professor at Randolph-Macon College, a small liberal arts school in Ashland, Va.

For example, in an interview on MSNBC on Wednesday morning Mr. Brat was questioned about his position on the federal minimum wage.

“I’m a free-market guy,” he told the interviewer, Chuck Todd. “Our labor markets right now are already distorted from too many regulations.”

But when Mr. Todd asked pointedly whether that meant he opposed a minimum wage, he hesitated. “Um, um, um, I don’t have a well-crafted response on that one.”

An academic with degrees in economics and divinity, Mr. Brat, 49, teaches economics and ethics at Randolph-Macon College. Before he began making rumblings about challenging Mr. Cantor as early as 2011, his political activity was confined to local races.

Even before then, Mr. Brat, who is chairman of Randolph-Macon’s economics and business departments, offered hints in interviews and academic research of how his academic work intersected with his politics.

In an interview with The Richmond Times-Dispatch in 2010, he said that free markets were the answer to many of the world’s social ills.

“Economic growth is important,” he said. “Without economic growth, the entire world was trapped at incomes of $500 per year until about 1800. Today, the average American worker is closer to $50,000.”

In the same interview, he said, “The latest in economic research shows that ethical ideas may matter just as much as traditional economic variables in generating long-run economic growth.”

Mr. Brat, who has a Ph.D in economics from American University in Washington and a master’s degree in divinity from the Princeton Theological Seminary, has also published research with titles like “Adam Smith’s God and the End of Economics” and “An Analysis of the Moral Foundations of Ayn Rand.”

He and his wife, Laura, have two children, ages 15 and 11, according to his campaign biography.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/us...r.html?hp&_r=0

I really would like to know if his independence of political obligations was not a large part of his attraction? At this point if he could win, he owes no one other than his district any allegiance, and that IS ATTRACTIVE, IMO!

Dave Brat, write a book titled, "How to Beat Political Parties Without Their Money/" Maybe we can inspire others to think independently and do it 537 times?

None of the Tea Party groups supported him before he won

but as soon as he won they all claimed him as a Tea Party candidate.

1. Eric Cantor Defeated By Tea Party Candidate In Virginia ...
   www.npr.org/blogs/.../eric-cantor-defeated-in-republican-primaryNPR
   14 hours ago - House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has lost his Republican primary in Virginia's 7th Congressional District to Tea Party challenger David Brat ...
2. Dave Brat: Meet the Candidate Who Beat Eric Cantor - ABC ...
   
   abcnews.go.com › PoliticsABC News
   by John Parkinson - in 23 Google+ circles
   1 day ago - Long shot candidate Dave Brat succeeded in his bid against a top House ... Huge Upset: Top House Republican Loses to Tea Party Challenger ...
   
   
3. Cantor upset in Virginia GOP primary by Tea Party-backed ...
   
   www.foxnews.com/.../house-majority-leader-eric-cant...
   Fox News Channel
   13 hours ago - June 10, 2014: Tea Party-backed challenger DaveBrat, right, ... He said he enjoyed Tea Party support but was acandidate focused on ...
4. Eric Cantor Defeated by David Brat, Tea Party Challenger ...
   
   www.nytimes.com/.../eric-cantor-loses-gop-primary.h...The New York Times
   22 hours ago - ... upsets in congressional history, Mr. Cantor, the House majority leader, was soundly defeated by David Brat, a Tea Party-backed candidate.
5. Cantor Loses to Tea Party Candidate in Va. Upset - Real ...
   www.realclearpolitics.com/.../cantor_loses_to_tea_party...
   RealClearPolitics
   21 hours ago - Cantor Loses to Tea Party Candidate in Va. ... Eric Cantor lost his re-election bid Tuesday to conservative challenger David Brat in Virginia's 7th ...
6. Brat's Win Is Not Only About the Tea Party : The New Yorker
   www.newyorker.com/.../brats-win-isnt-just-about-...The New Yorker
   by John Cassidy - in 146 Google+ circles
   5 hours ago - Brat's success shows that the concerns that gave rise to the Tea Party ... of some Tea Partyorganizations, he didn't run as a Tea Party candidate. ... Like many Tea Party Republicans (and many progressives),Brat is highly ...
7. Meet Dave Brat, the anti-NSA Tea Party candidate who just ...
   www.dailydot.com/.../dave-brat-eric-cantor-house...
   The Daily Dot
   by Kevin Collier - in 42 Google+ circles
   10 hours ago - But in line with his Tea Party credentials, he was quick to brand himself a true constitutional conservative, rather than a party line-towing ...
8. GOP leader Eric Cantor loses in shock Tea Party upset
   www.usatoday.com/story/news/.../10304543/
   USA Today
   by Catalina Camia - in 124 Google+ circles
   12 hours ago - "Brat ran an aggressive campaign with strong Tea Party support and perhaps some ... Milton Wolf, a Tea Party candidate challenging Sen.
9. Images for tea party candidate BratReport images
   More images for tea party candidate Brat

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10. Eric Cantor Loses to Tea Party's David Brat in Virginia Primary
    online.wsj.com/.../no-2-house-republican-eric-ca...
    The Wall Street Journal
    14 hours ago - Tea-party-backed challenger David Bratresoundingly defeated Rep. ... the leading candidate to be the next House speaker, lost to David Brat, ...

The Tea Party is the Democrat's Boogeyman that they use for raising money$$$. The media is on board for them. Just thinking.

I see a lot of the real big Tea Party groups today bought out again by special interests. When the Tea Party movement got started I joined up with many groups, paid attention, and supported most of the stuff other then the odd religious end. Back when you didn't hear to much on the religious end though but more about personal responability, smaller government, less regulations, and enforcing the law. Lot of things were getting fairly laid out in base details and could be supported.

However now most of the major groups I have unsubscribed from, stopped donating to, and stopped supporting. The reason why is I see to many of the major national groups bought out by special interests and moved away from real Tea Party values. Major groups constant crap about opposing abortion, opposing gay marriage, and even supporting Amnesty. The same crap we hear from the GOP that loses them a LOT of what could be support if they simply set religion to the side and supported the law and Americans.

I honestly think a few big shot liberal agenda men have secretly taken over a faction of the Tea Party through money and the major national names. All in the reason to create crap showing the Tea Party is racist and filled with hate due to their controlled groups crap they spew.

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Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

None of the Tea Party groups supported him before he won

but as soon as he won they all claimed him as a Tea Party candidate.

I think the only ones claiming him as TEA Party are the media! I haven't seen anything from a national TEA Party group claiming him.

It was the liberal media labeling Dave Brat as 'Tea Party' when the expected Cantor to win and were eager to say 'Cantor Defeats Tea Party' but as we can see... Brat was not the Tea Party yet he won! Perhaps the Tea Party label has become so toxic that our candidates are better off without it? The Tea Party groups were certainly of little help to us in Cantor's race!

W

Originally Posted by ALIPAC

It was the liberal media labeling Dave Brat as 'Tea Party' when the expected Cantor to win and were eager to say 'Cantor Defeats Tea Party' but as we can see... Brat was not the Tea Party yet he won! Perhaps the Tea Party label has become so toxic that our candidates are better off without it? The Tea Party groups were certainly of little help to us in Cantor's race!

W

William, I must agree as I posted on this thread yesterday. much of Mr. Brat's attraction for me was his independence of being "coached" and influenced by others and their money. One writer in yahoo today even said the he seemed uninformed about many issues. It is OK, when confronted by those issues he will rely (if some dumb pro pol doesn't get to him) he will accept what a majority fo his "back home" advisers recommend.

The lesson here, to me, is to stay away from party, find someone in the district that can withstand the b.s. running for office always brings, find him/her a bit of money and get the message delivered, local editor to editor and face to face with voters. Let the candidate be human rather than a political robot.