Free Republic

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor canceled a scheduled speech he was to give Wednesday morning before the National Association of Manufacturers, as policymakers scramble to sort through what his stunning political loss means for the financial sector. Cantor was expected to discuss a host of conservative policy initiatives at NAM's annual summit, but now he will be replaced by Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), according to a source familiar with the matter. No explanation was given by the source. Cantor lost in a primary election Tuesday night to Tea Party challenger David Brat, an economics professor. His last minute speech cancellation...

RICHMOND, Va. — Dave Brat, a local economics professor, toppled House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Tuesday night in the most shocking primary defeat since Republicans took the House in 2010. The conservative challenger’s victory halts one of the most meteoric rises in national politics, and illustrates the strong anti-incumbent fever that has taken over Cantor’s Richmond-area district. Cantor is the second House incumbent to lose this primary season — Texas GOP incumbent Ralph Hall was defeated by a tea-party backed challenger at the end of May. Cantor’s defeat not only reorders Virginia politics, where Cantor was the highest-ranking Republican,...

Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) is 10 points behind his primary opponent, according to a new nonpartisan poll, making it highly unlikely he'll win Tuesday's contest. Lugar trails Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock (R) 48 percent to 38, according to a poll released Friday from Howey Politics Indiana and DePauw University. That is Mourdock's largest lead in any poll conducted of the race, including those by groups backing him. This is the latest — and biggest — bad sign for the six-term incumbent: The poll is considered the most accurate in the state. Lugar already has seen a major outside group...

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and the as-yet-undeclared Texas Gov. Rick Perry have unseated Mitt Romney as the front-runners in the latest Daily Caller/Conservative Home Tracking Poll. This time the survey asked five questions: Who is your top pick for president? Who is the most electable? Who is your second choice? Who would do the best job handling the economy? And who would do the best job reducing spending in Washington? Having finally conceded that Chris Christie and Paul Ryan are actually serious when they say they’re not going to run, we removed them from the ballot. We added Rudy Giuliani,...

When U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and his aides walked into Cardinal Daniel DiNardo's conference room at the Catholic Chancery one afternoon three weeks ago to talk about immigration reform, they were greeted by the archbishop, Lutheran Bishop Michael Rinehart and a dozen rabbis and clergy members from a variety of denominations. They were also greeted by about 6,000 postcards piled in stacks on the large conference table around which the group would sit.... At a time when anger is the currency of the political realm, much of it aimed at illegal immigrants, the religious leaders were saying to Cornyn that...