Amnesty died because candidate Dave Brat beat House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Period. Dave Brat campaigned exclusively against amnesty and he won. The unknown ousted the GOP Majority Leader on amnesty, after that no one in the House was going to vote for the gang of 8 bill.
http://theconservativetreehouse.com/2015/12/17/just-how-close-was-the-2014-amnesty-vote-heres-the-back-story/
Saw a Mike Lee interview. See, he was in the thick of it real time while it was happening.
So...I'll go with Lee on this one. Thank you for your input. Bye