AP: Eric Cantor Loses Primary To Tea Partier

Filed in National by on June 10, 2014

This is stunning.  House Majority Leader Eric Cantor loses his primary?  (83% reporting: 56% Brat,  44% Cantor)  That’s not even close!  I feel like I’m being punked!

So much for all that “Moderates are back in charge of the Republican Party” and “The Tea Party has lost its power” talk.

Did anyone see this coming?  Not me.  Oh wow.

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A stay-at-home mom with an obsession for National politics.

Comments (17)

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  1. Exactly right when it comes to the ‘Tea Party’ meme.

    Sorry to say that immigration reform is dead for the time-being.

  2. Jim C says:

    Rustydlls and fightingbluehen and I prayed for it! Not really, the last time I prayed was when the cop car was behind me with lights flashing on a Friday night, it worked then 🙂

  3. puck says:

    Please, please let there be a reaction shot of the expression on Cantor’s face.

  4. pandora says:

    Talk about something that will flip the chessboard.

    Question: Are the Dems running anyone for the seat? Could they win? I know the district is really conservative, but is it crazy conservative? Could this guy, Brat, be Virginia’s Christine O’Donnell? Or not.

  5. puck says:

    And who is in line for Majority Leader?

  6. Delaware Dem says:

    Kevin McCarthy, the Majority Whip.

  7. Delaware Dem says:

    But I think there are huge HUGE and dire political ramifications for the GOP. First, this guarantees that Boehner will not be Speaker next year. Second, it guarantees that there will be no immigration reform so long as the GOP controls the House. And therefore, third, it guarantees that the GOP will not win a presidential election in the next 10 years or more. Biggest winner tonight is Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz. Biggest loser, besides Cantor, is Jeb Bush and any Republican who has ever sounded compassionate about immigration. This is the greatest Political Catch-22 of our lifetimes: the GOP has to pass immigration reform with some kind of pathway to citizenship to make itself more attractive to Latinos. And yet, if they even think about doing that, their racist nativist angry base will eat them alive.

    If I were a strategist advising GOP elected officials, I would tell them that there is nothing they can do to appeal to the Tea Party base. You can never get to the right of them. And if you try, you lose the voters you need in a general election. So the better thing to do is actually govern and pass immigration reform. It will better for the long term of the country and better for the long term of the party, even if it means short term you might lose your seat. Because if you don’t govern, and try to appeal to them, then all you will do is guarantee 8 years of Hillary Clinton and then 8 years of Julian Castro.

  8. Aint's Taking it Any More says:

    Two kinds of terrorists in this world: the aggrieved and the ideologue. Once you can work with/pacify, the other, short of death, no way to deal with them.

    Tea party ideologues will cause the death of the republican party as we know it.

  9. Jason330 says:

    Cantor is too moderate for today’s Republican Party. It is going to take time for me to get my head around that.

  10. SussexAnon says:

    Virginia is an open primary state. The actor who played Cooter on Dukes of Hazard was telling his fellow democrats to vote for the nut-bar teabagger so the D could have a shot at winning. Cantor out raised his opponent 25:1.

  11. cassandra_m says:

    I heard on the radio earlier today that a primary win for Cantor with less than 60% of the vote would be damaging to him. When I got home, heard from a friend that a bunch of Dems got together to help work for the non-Cantor. Amazing.

  12. Jason330 says:

    Go Virginia Democrats. !

  13. rustydils says:

    I did not see this specifically coming on this particular race, but I am a staunch believer in much of what the tea party stands for and am glad to see them continuing to have some success

  14. ben says:

    “success” = getting Democrats elected.

  15. ben says:

    ‘Because if you don’t govern, and try to appeal to them, then all you will do is guarantee 8 years of Hillary Clinton and then 8 years of Julian Castro.”

    you gotta think hearing the term “President Castro” will finally either drive the neo-cons out of the country, or just blow up their tiny heads. Either way, that’ll finish them off.

  16. Jason330 says:

    ” …(I) am glad to see (Tea Bags) continuing to have some success.”

    Me too Rusty.

  17. Michelle M says:

    I’m not sure that I want another President Clinton, especially not one as hawkish as Hilary. But President Castro sounds great!