I live in VA-7. I have met Dave Brat a couple of times. I worked for him. I gave him a fair bit of money. I feel some ownership in this.
That being said, Dave is running on the Republican creed. Free markets, equal treatment under the law, limited government - the powers not delegated to the feds belong to the state or to the people, a strong defense (he always complimented Cantor on his strong support of defense), and a strong moral Judeo-Christian foundation. He actually says the words “Judeo-Christian foundation” repeatedly in his stump speech.
Yes, he could go all Cantor on us down the road. But his stated goal is to serve, try to right the ship of state and go back to his life. Cantor’s goal was always to be Speaker. Period. To me, that is rather important.
Time will tell. Meanwhile, I’m going to do what I can to help Dave.
JMHO.
I don’t live in VA, so I’ve been reading more about Brat, and he really sounds solid and actually seems to have some new approaches or perhaps new focuses for the standard GOP platform ideas. Of course, I thought that about Cantor, too, initially - I don’t know what happened to him.
And even if you get only a couple of good years out of Brat and he goes Cantor, that’s still a couple of good years!