>> I’m curious too. I don’t know anything about him, and the only thing people here seem to like is that he is anti-immigration. I can’t believe that this is his only policy, however. He’s an economics professor, so he might not be your usual one-trick amateur who has gained favor for one particular position, and instead might actually be a solid candidate. Cantor seemed to have a lot of potential, being intelligent, conservative, and young. But he just never really connected with the economic reality of his constituents in a lot of ways (an odd thing, since that was his specialty) and then he somehow fell in with the Boehner wing. I hope David Brat turns out to be what Cantor could have been. I guess we’ll find out. <<
Finally, some level headed posts on this thread.
VA-7 has a Cook PVI rating of R+10, so it looks like whoever wins the primary is overwhelmingly favored to win in November. Especially since 2014 is likely to be a GOP year, Brat should have an easy time winning whether he's a good candidate or not.
Cantor did turn out to be a disappointment after he was overly hyped as a "rising star" before joining the GOP leadership. I hope Brat lives up to the hype and I wish him the best of luck, but I agree with you in taking a wait and see apprach.
The last time we had a big "win" like this was when Jason Chaffez defeating Chris Cannon in Utah. Cannon was a much bigger amnesty pimp than Cantor (though solidly conservative on everything else). Chaffez pretty much ran exclusively on an anti-Washington message and hammered Cannon nonstop for being pro-amnesty. and like everyone else I was psyched when Chaffez won and thought it would be great for getting some new blood in Washington. He's now turned out to be WORSE than his predecessor and it seems all that stuff Chaffez spewed about "conservative principles" meant nothing aside from using it to win a primary.
Let's hope Brat ends up more in the mold of Ted Cruz and Mike Lee than the mold of Justin Amash or Jason Chaffetz.