Stunning Upset: House Majority Leader Cantor Defeated By “Tea Party Candidate”

For the first time in history, a House Majority Leader has lost a primary election.

Eric Cantor, a seven-term incumbent holding the second-highest leadership position in the House, lost his bid for re-election by a 56-44 margin.

What’s even more surprising is that he lost to a relatively unknown candidate.

Dave Brat, an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College, spent a little over $200,000 on his winning campaign. Cantor spent over $5 million.

So, just who is the man who unseated one of the most powerful Republicans in Washington?

Brat earned a Masters in Divinity from Princeton and Ph.D. in Economics from American University. He is a libertarian-leaning conservative who, during his campaign, painted Cantor as a politician who compromised by “crony capitalism” who supported amnesty for illegal immigrants.

He’s being touted as a Tea Party candidate for his anti-establishment views – Brat has criticized government bailouts and budget deals, and frequently mentions God and the Constitution.

But despite his stance on the issues, Brat was unable to secure endorsements from major groups like FreedomWorks, Tea Party Express, and Tea Party Patriots.

That didn’t stop him from soundly beating Cantor, though. Perhaps Virginians are tired of establishment politicians who seem more concerned with serving their party than the people.

Here is where Brat stands on some of the major issues Americans are dealing with:

Obamacare: Brat is in favor of defunding the law, which he calls an “unconstitutional power grab by our Federal Government,” and replacing it with free-market options.

Fiscal Responsibility: He supports a balanced budget amendment to force Congress to reign in out of control federal spending and to restore confidence in the American economy.

Immigration: Brat supports border control and rejects “any proposal that grants amnesty and undermines the fundamental rule of law. Adding millions of workers to the labor market will force wages to fall and jobs to be lost. I support proposals that will secure our border, enforce our current laws, and restore an orderly and fair process to allow law abiding individuals to work towards becoming citizens of this great nation.”

Term Limits: He supports Congressional term limits of 12 years total, across the House and Senate.

Second Amendment: Brat will oppose any efforts to undermine or limit the Constitutional right to bear arms. Strong supporter of gun rights.

Education: He opposes to- down approaches by the Federal Government such as Common Core and No Child Left Behind.

Brat also supports a full investigation into Benghazi and a full audit of the Federal Reserve System.

He also supports smaller government and the restoration of our personal freedoms:

The federal government’s abuse of our freedoms has spun out of control. Whether it is the NSA violating our 4^th Amendment Rights by collecting phone records, the IRS violating our 1^st Amendment rights by targeting conservative organizations, or President Obama violating our 5^th Amendment rights with the indefinite detention of American citizens, our freedoms have been under attack and they must be restored. (source)

“The issue is the Republican Party has been paying way too much attention to Wall Street and not enough attention to Main Street,” Mr. Brat has said.

Brat’s Democratic opponent in the November general election is Jack Trammell, a sociology professor who also happens to be a work at Randolph-Macon College.