Political news is being dominated by stories of the big Senate races and the fights between establishment Republicans and conservative Tea Party challengers.
One race is flying under the radar. This race could set the tone for the 2014 Republican primaries and has the potential to shake up the House of Representatives.
Rep. Eric Cantor represents Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. He has been in Congress since 2001. Cantor’s rise to the leadership in the House has been rapid, and most experts agree that he will be the next Republican speaker of the House, whenever John Boehner steps down.
For conservatives, this is a huge problem. Despite his claims, Cantor is anything but conservative.
Since 2011, Cantor has been the chief check writer for the Great Obama National Debt. As the leader of House Republicans, Cantor has done nothing to stop the runaway spending of the Obama regime. Cantor has managed to arrange 50 symbolic votes against Obamacare but done nothing to actually stop it. And what may be the cardinal sin in the minds of many conservatives, Eric Cantor is very strongly in favor of immigration amnesty.
He is being challenged by Dave Brat in the Republican primary.
Brat is an economics professor at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, Va. He is following the example of Dave Jolly, who recently won a special election in Florida’s 13th Congressional District.
Florida-13 is a swing district. Obama took it twice, but it had been represented a long time by a Republican who died in office last year.
The conventional wisdom among the Republican consultant class is that Republicans shouldn’t run against Obamacare and Republicans must embrace amnesty. Despite all of the data that shows that amnesty would give the Democrats a permanent majority and bankrupt this nation, the Republican Establishment insists this is the only way to win.
In Florida, Jolly ran against Obamacare and came out strongly against amnesty. According to the experts, that should have ended his candidacy.
Instead, Jolly won, despite being out spent and having a libertarian candidate siphoning off some votes that would have gone his way.
Brat’s campaign is paying attention. His campaign is featuring his opposition not only to Obamacare but also to amnesty.
Eric Cantor has a huge war chest built up. As the House majority leader, he will have a lot of special interests that will donate heavily to him. Dave Brat has the Tea Party.
The fight over Virginia-7 will be the ultimate battle between the big government, big business wing of the Republican Party and the Tea Party.
The establishment has money. The Tea Party has activists.
If Dave Brat knocks off Eric Cantor, the shockwave will be felt through Washington. This is the year the big business, big government wing of the GOP is supposed to crush the Tea Party.
But a funny thing always seems to happen to the Establishment. Its track record for winning isn’t all what it’s cracked up to be.
Just ask President Mitt Romney.
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