David Brat, an economics professor with Tea Party backing, shocked the Republican party on Tuesday by defeating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a primary in their suburban Richmond, Virginia district.
David Brat is is an economist and Professor of Economics at Randolph–Macon College. As the Republican candidate in the general election for Virginia’s 7th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, his next contest will be held on November 4, 2014.
A Tea Party challenger, Brat defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the district’s 2014 Republican primary on Tuesday, June 10, 2014. Brat’s victory over Cantor in the primary marked the first defeat of an incumbent House Majority Leader since the position’s creation in 1899. Talk Radio hosts Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin endorsed David Brat.
Brat attended Hope College and received a B.A. in Business Administration in 1986. He also graduated with a Master’s degree in Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1990, and earned a Ph.D in economics from The American University in 1995.
Democratic house leader Nancy Pelosi reacts to the stunning defeat of the chamber’s second-most powerful Republican, Eric Cantor, in the Virginia primary. Pelosi said she has always said that people in Washington don’t know what’s going on in their own district.
Eric Cantor is expected to make a formal announcement of his plans later today at a closed-door meeting of the party’s rank and file.
U.S. Rep. Peter Roskam of Wheaton, the House chief deputy whip, is Number 4 on the Republican leadership team in the House. However, it is too early to tell if the upset of Cantor’s loss helps or hurts Peter Roskam.
Roskam has also served in the Illinois Senate and the Illinois House of Representatives. In the Senate, Roskam sponsored legislation giving the Supreme Court of Illinois authority to reverse a death penalty sentence. He has authored or co-authored fourteen bills to cut taxes. Americans for Tax Reform named Roskam “Hero of the Taxpayer” in 2005 for his opposition to HB-755, which would have raised income and sales taxes.
Senior Republican sources tell Dana Bash that Eric Cantor is expected to resign as the No. 2 House Republican by July 31.
Roskam sponsored an Illinois state Senate bill which would have allowed retired military and police personnel to carry concealed weapons. He has gained National Rifle Association (NRA) endorsement for being a supporter of gun rights. On July 15, 2006, Roskam was the featured guest at an NRA support rally for him in Addison, Illinois
Roskam opposed plans to expand O’Hare International Airport, and instead favored building a third regional airport in Chicago’s southern suburbs.
Roskam adamantly opposes President Obama’s planned relocation of Guantanamo Bay detention camp inmates to Thomson Correctional Center in Thompson, Illinois, calling it “a misguided decision that will ultimately be regretted.”
In October 2012 Attorney General Eric Holder said the Thomson Correctional Center will house U.S. inmates, but that there are no plans to revive a 2009 effort to move some Guantanamo detainees to the United States and the Illinois prison.
Roskam and the tea party have been opposed on issues, such as increasing the debt limit, funds to the government, a version of the FARM bill that cuts $20 billion from food stamp, cuts toward funding of alternative energy, and barring NSA data gathering from people who are not under investigation.
Little-known challenger Dave Brat beat House Majority leader Eric Cantor in a primary race. CNN’s Dana Bash reports.
See also …
Tea Party Score Card for Peter Roskam
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