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.
Agreed. I was very impressed with Cantor initially.
Then he seemed to sucked into the same Washington vortex that has grabbed other politicians and he came out the other side with a lot of positions that are opposed by the mainstream
>> 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.
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.