Chris Wallace confronts Eric Cantor on do-nothing congress

[TheOldSchool]

Just noticed another thread on this. My bad

Delete please!

 

[waltky]

Brat upsets Cantor in Va. primary voting...

US House majority leader Eric Cantor loses primary to Tea Party challenger
Tuesday 10 June 2014 ~ Economics professor Dave Brat wins in shock result in Virginia's 7th congressional district

The House majority leader, Eric Cantor, has lost the Republican nomination for his seat in Virginia in a shock primary election defeat that may prove the biggest US political upset of the year. The second most senior Republican in the House, who had been tipped to take over from the speaker, John Boehner, was defeated in a surprise result by the Tea Party candidate David Brat. With more than three-quarters of precincts reporting by shortly after 8pm, Associated Press predicted that Brat would comfortably take the seat, almost certainly forcing Cantor out of his position as a top Washington powerbroker for the party.

It is possible, though unlikely, that Cantor could run as a write-in candidate for the relatively safe Republican House seat in Virginia’s 8th district, which neighbours Richmond. But his defeat by Brat, a relatively unknown economics professor, will send shockwaves through a party leadership that thought it had survived the 2014 primary election season with relatively limited damage from the Tea Party. The clash between mainstream Republican leaders in Washington and more conservative Tea Party rivals has dominated US politics in recent years, leading to the government shutdown last year.

The decision by Boehner and Cantor to ultimately face down their Tea Party wing over its shutdown demands was thought to have taken the momentum out of the upstart movement and a number of mainstream Senate incumbents had recently seen off primary challenges from the right. In Tuesday’s primary election in South Carolina, for example, Senator Lindsey Graham comfortably beat six separate Tea Party challengers and avoided a run-off election by gaining more than 50% of the vote. Cantor, who was already seen as among the more conservative members of the House leadership, had been widely expected to win his primary comfortably. He heavily outspent his opponent with a relatively negative campaign pointing out Brat’s lack of experience.

But Brat successfully criticised Cantor’s support for immigration reform and financial compromise efforts such as extending the debt ceiling and budget authority – factors that are likely to send a chill through attempts to bridge the already deep divide between Republicans and Democrats in Washington. Speaking as the official results showed Brat ahead by 55% to 45%, Cantor told supporters in a Richmond hotel ballroom: “I know there’s a lot of long faces here tonight. It’s disappointing, sure. But I believe in this country. I believe there’s opportunity around the next corner for all of us.” Internal polling by Cantor’s team ahead of the election had shown him ahead by some 34%.

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