Free Republic

Economics professor Dave Brat, who bested House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a GOP primary a month ago in Virginia’s 7th congressional district, has hired his third campaign manager of the race. Mr. Brat announced that Phil Rapp, an aide to state Sen. Bill Stanley, Franklin Republican, will be the campaign’s manager heading to the fall after Amanda Chase, a former Cantor staffer, ran things during the transition from the primary to the general election. The Brat campaign also announced it is bringing on Tim Edson as a general consultant. Mr. Edson was the campaign manager for former Florida congressman...

UPDATE: Congressman Goodlatte’s office responded to this post: “Congressman Goodlatte requested this meeting with SVTPP in May, well before the June 10th primary, as part of his continued outreach to groups throughout the Sixth District. The headline of your post is quite misleading, making it look like the meeting was requested in response to Eric Cantor’s loss, which is not the case.” The Shenandoah Valley Tea Party Patriots (SVTPP) reported in their June 29 newsletter that they were asked by Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-6th) to meet to air their concerns, an hour-long event that took place on June 17, just...

Water, Carried: Politico‘s Seung Min Kim and Carrie Budoff Brown sum up “How immigration reform died.” Some questions for them: 1) Is it true “reformers largely won the August recess [of 2013]? That sure wasn’t my recollection. My recollection is that initial opposition to amnesty at town halls was muted, in large part because frightened GOP congressmen simply stopped holding town halls. Reporters sympathetic to the “reformers” immediately rushed write stories claiming that “Immigration Reformers are Winning August.” (SNIP) You never seem to carry water for opponents of “comprehensive” legislation. Do we need to leak to you more? Take out...

After the skin-crawling exploitation of black voters in Mississippi, the GOP’s current leadership wing gives a second demonstration, this time in Virginia, of just how committed they are to “a big tent,” or to the GOP’s vitality in general. The Senate majority matters, the House majority matters. But this party’s leadership is infested with the same disregard for Washington’s intended purpose as any Clintonian. Third parties fail. But what cost does remaining aligned with this generation of GOP leadership take from the cause of liberty and transparency? Recall, last week Eric Cantor said: “Of course I’ll vote for David Brat...

Almost exactly two weeks ago, Dave Brat gained national attention by pulling off a primary win over then-House Majority Leader Eric Cantor that he called "an unbelievable miracle." Then he went underground. In the past fortnight, Brat has mostly ducked national media, changed up his campaign staff, and started to adjust to life as -- willing or not -- a grassroots conservative icon of incumbent vulnerability. He spoke with the Washington Examiner this morning about his efforts to reintroduce himself to the public and his campaign plans moving forward. Here are highlights from that conversation: Sign Up for the Politics...

WEST CHESTER, Pa—Expecting House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to win his GOP primary in Virginia, I spent Election Day in Pennsylvania—interviewing angry Republicans, Democrats, and independents about the rise of political populism. I was in the wrong state, but I had the right topic. Cantor's defeat has less to do with immigration reform than it does with an uneven movement that should frighten conservative and liberal political elites to their shallow cores. Americans see a grim future for themselves, their children and their country. They believe their political leaders are selfish, greedy, and short-sighted—unable and/or unwilling to shield most people...

House Majority Leader-elect Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) blamed crossover votes by Democrats for Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) surprise primary defeat at the hands of David Brat in an interview on Sean Hannity’s radio show on Monday. He stated that was surprised by Cantor’s defeat, and did say that “all politics are local” when asked why he thought Cantor lost. McCarthy added that he had “read five different analyses” and one theory he came across was “Democrats voted 30 percent in [that race].”

As part of his bid to become majority leader, McCarthy told his Republican colleagues in a closed-door meeting that he wouldn't overstep Hensarling on Ex-Im -- a major blow to the bank's future. The bank expires if the House doesn't produce a bill to reauthorize it, and Hensarling's committee has jurisdiction on the issue.Business groups fear the shake-up in House leadership will set back their efforts to renew authorization for the Export-Import bank. With Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) -- an Ex-Im critic during the 2012 battle -- jumping into the majority whip post, supporters of the bank say a divided...

In the first major press conference since his stunning primary victory over House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) on June 10, Virginia's 7th Congressional District Republican nominee Dave Brat focused on the unifying "mainstream American principles we all believe in." Speaking outside his Glenn Allen headquarters in suburban Richmond Thursday morning, Brat noted that his supporters, volunteers, and campaign staffers "are coming from all corners of the Republican party and beyond. We've got long-time Republicans of all stripes. We have Tea Partiers, independents, and libertarians on board." "This is precisely what this campaign is all about from the beginning. We're...

The lesson of Dave Brat’s victory over Eric Cantor last week is being missed: In all pundits’ talk about immigration, no one has stopped to point out that Brat boldly grabbed the third rail of American politics, ripped it off the tracks, and beat Cantor with it.George W. Bush, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry all rhetorically touched entitlement programs and lived, but I’ve never seen a politician tell the plain, actuarial truth the way Brat did and get rewarded for it. Republicans should be overjoyed that they can finally shout about underfunded social programs. Instead, the only lesson they’re learning...

How many voters know that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is a Roman Catholic? Or that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is a Southern Baptist, not a Latino Catholic? Or that Florida Sen. Marco Rubio worships at both a Catholic parish and an evangelical church? More importantly, does it matter? Actually, it does in today’s Republican Party, where a number of factors have forged a new religious identity that supersedes familiar old categories. These prominent Republicans are emblematic of the new religious amalgam that, in many instances, has helped refashion denominational differences that were once almost insurmountable. Look no further than...

It’s now clear why the primary defeat of the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, came so completely out of the blue last week: Beltway blindness that put a focus on fund-raising, power-brokering and partisan back-and-forth created a reality distortion field that obscured the will of the people. But that affliction was not Mr. Cantor’s alone; it is shared by the political press. Reporters and commentators might want to pause and wipe the egg off their faces before they go on camera to cluck-cluck about how Mr. Cantor, Republican of Virginia, missed signs of the insurgency that took him out. There...

Like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) and former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), Dave Brat sends a shock through the New York/Washington axis. His victory shows a classic denial of political reality by the political establishment. It comes because the establishment holds fast to "the way we were" and won't let go. 'Twas ever thus, but all the money, all the influence, all the mainstream propaganda from Hollywood and the Eastern press cannot hold it back. The new century rises to new themes; the old falls away to ruins. I have been saying here that what we have been seeing...

They are Very Concerned about the extremists taking over or something. Here’s the NY Times Editorial Board The forces of political nihilism not only remain alive and well within the Republican Party, but they are on the rise. Witness the way they shook Washington on Tuesday by removing from power Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, who had been one of the most implacable opponents to the reform of immigration, health care and taxation. His crime (in addition to complacent campaigning)? He was occasionally obliged, as a leader, to take a few minimalist steps toward governing, like raising the debt...

<p>Tea Party-backed candidates are trying to ride the momentum after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s loss earlier this week by portraying their incumbent opponents as out of touch with voters.</p> <p>In Mississippi, six-term GOP incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran has been locked in a neck-and-neck race with Tea Party-backed challenger Chris McDaniel.</p>

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Sunday he will vote for Dave Brat, the man who ended his career in Congress, but stopped short of congratulating him or mentioning his name. Cantor, who lost to Brat despite outspending by a margin of 26 to 1, stressed the importance of keeping the Republican Party unified, a message he stressed to Tea Party conservatives in the House after the 2013 government shutdown. Cantor said keeping his seat, Virginia’s 7th congressional district, in Republican hands is a priority and that’s why he’ll vote for Brat, who pummeled him mercilessly on the campaign...

That's how many people it took to bring down House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, doom immigration reform and leave all but the most tea-sodden Republicans quaking. No, it wasn't the Democrats who did it. Various complicated analyses of voting patterns confirm what anyone who has ever tried to convince even their own mother to vote "strategically" knows: Voters don't work that way. They may cast their vote to send a message — that happens all the time — but not to execute a strategy that depends on their voting for someone they don't like at all so that someone else...

Last night I posted what I thought was a very balanced comment on the 7th district congressional election. I expressed my personal disappointment that Eric Cantor lost, congratulated David Brat on his victory, and expressed concern over the deep divisions that currently exist in our party. I encourage you to read the comments that were made in response. The negativity and vitriol of these comments (dare I say the hate in some of them) reflects what is wrong in our party right now. We have to learn to disagree without being disagreeable, and we have to learn to respect the...

Top Jeb Bush adviser Mike Murphy, who did not even pay attention to Dave Brat's campaign like Breitbart News did, has falsely been claiming that Cantor's embrace of amnesty for illegal immigrants was not the reason he lost last Tuesday. Liberal writer Mickey Kaus had enough of Murphy's nonsense and slammed him on Twitter on Friday evening. Kaus became Brat's de facto press secretary and top advocate on Twitter in the last months of the campaign because Kaus, like Brat, opposes amnesty for illegal immigrants because it would hurt American workers. He mentioned to Murphy that talk radio host Laura...

With just seven little words, the freakout began: “The government holds a monopoly on violence.” These were written by David Brat, a professor of economics at Virginia’s Randolph-Macon College and, now, the Republican party’s nominee for the state’s seventh congressional district. “Unusual” and “eye-opening” was the New York Daily News’s petty verdict. In the Wall Street Journal, Reid Epstein insinuated darkly that the claim cast Brat as a modern-day fascist. And, for his part, Politico’s Ben White suggested that the candidate’s remarks “on Neitzsche and the government monopoly on violence don’t make a whole lot of sense.” As is its...