How the Eric Cantor loss changes everything
The House majority leader's stunning defeat by tea party challenger Dave Brat has immediate implications.
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How Eric Cantor's Shocking Loss Changes Everything
By Rick Klein
11 hours ago
What happened
in Virginia's 7th Congressional District Tuesday night amounted to a
political earthquake, with shockwaves that will be felt across the
national political landscape.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., fell to conservative challenger Dave Brat - and not just by a little. Brat's margin of victory was more than 10 percentage points, 44 percent for Cantor compared to 55 percent for Brat, according to the Associated Press.
Analysis: Immigration Issue May Have Felled Cantor
The implications of Cantor's primary defeat are vast. Here are a few:
IMMIGRATION REFORM IS DEAD
The
issue that got Brat going in his primary win was immigration,
portraying Cantor as a proponent of "amnesty," which is a stretch even
in the bounds of political rhetoric. Cantor's loss effectively
eliminates any slim chance the U.S. House of Representatives had of
passing immigration reform along the lines of the Senate bill this year.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, will face even more - and now,
likely overwhelming - pressure to shelve these efforts, given the
message that just got delivered to his top lieutenant. Even proponents
of immigration reform are shifting tactics, and are poised to put more
pressure on President Obama to change enforcement policies rather than
push stalled legislation.
THE TEA PARTY IS ALIVE AND WELL
About
all those stories about the Tea Party not being relevant anymore… The
only reason Cantor could be caught napping was the aggressive support
Brat enjoyed among Tea Party activists who joined with national
conservative voices such as Laura Ingraham and Ann Coulter to boost a
candidacy nobody was paying attention to. Virginia's open primary (you
didn't have to be a Republican to vote against - or for - Cantor in the
GOP primary) opened the door for anyone in the district to send a
message to their veteran congressman. This will embolden Tea Party
activists who see the chance to defeat veteran Mississippi Sen. Thad
Cochran, who is facing a runoff later this month, as their next
opportunity to upend the establishment.
NOBODY IS SAFE
Cantor's
loss makes his the biggest scalp in the short, aggressive history of
the Tea Party movement - surely the biggest primary upset since Mike
Castle went down to Christine O'Donnell in Delaware in 2010. While that
cost the GOP a Senate seat even Castle didn't have the national cache of
Cantor, who was widely seen as a potential successor to Boehner and was
discussed as a possible vice-presidential choice in 2008. If Cantor
could be caught beaten in his backyard, in a Republican primary, the
list of definitely safe Republicans is alarmingly short.
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