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| Rep. Eric Cantor |
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), who was in line to be the next House Speaker, shockingly lost his primary Tuesday to economics professor Dave Brat. In knocking Cantor off and shocking Washington and the GOP establishment, voters in Virginia's seventh congressional district may have killed amnesty legislation in this Congress.
The Associated Press called the race for Brat at 8:03 PM EST with around 85% of the vote in and Brat leading 55.8% to 44.2%.
In the final weeks of the campaign, Brat made the race completely about amnesty and open borders, saying a vote for Cantor would be a vote for "open borders," and the seventh district primary would be the "last chance" to stop amnesty.
Regarding amnesty legislation, voters told Cantor and Congress, "not so fast."
After anti-amnesty Republican Ann Coulter endorsed Brat, Laura Ingraham, who has relentlessly fought for American workers against amnesty on her national radio program, campaigned for him last week. Brat said on Breitbart News Sunday that 700 people showed up to the event and some even parked in Cantor's cul-de-sac.
In wanting to crush Brat, Cantor inadvertently elevated Brat's name identification. After Cantor's top ally got ousted from a top GOP chairmanship in his district last month, Cantor did not take anything for granted, while Brat redoubled his amnesty attack. Cantor outspent Brat by more than ten to one during the last seven weeks of the campaign. Cantor spent nearly a million dollars, sending multiple deceptive anti-amnesty mailers ahead of the primary and ensuring his website made no mention of his previous support for amnesty and an increase in the number of high-tech visas. In endorsing Cantor, the Richmond Times-Dispatch did not even mention immigration at all. Brat's campaign spent only $76,000.
But Brat was relentless in his attacks on Cantor.
Cantor has proclaimed that "one of the great founding principles" of the country was that children would not be punished for the mistakes of their parents, which is why illegal immigrant minors should be given amnesty. Brat said that was "one of the most radical pro-amnesty statements ever delivered by a sitting representative." He blamed Cantor's words, which were also in the House GOP leadership's immigration principles, for attracting illegal immigrant children to the U.S.
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) National Council President Kenneth Palinkas made the same point months ago, arguing that if one of America's "great founding principles" is that illegal immigrant children should be granted amnesty, then Congress would have to award perpetual amnesty to the children of illegal immigrants.
The anti-Cantor We Deserve Better PAC ran ads warning voters that Cantor's next deal with Obama will be to give "amnesty and citizenship" to illegal immigrants, which Cantor confirmed in an interview with a local television station last Friday.
"But I have told the President there are some things that we can work on together," Cantor said in a Friday interview with a local television station. "We can work on the border security bill together. We can work on things like the kids."
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