THE CANTOR CATASTROPHE: Or, ‘How Little Lord Fauntleroy Got His Ass Handed To Him’

How did Eric Cantor manage to epically lose to Dave Brat after spending millions of dollars campaigning against him? It seems like Cantor would have had more going for him, but according to the Daily Mail his hubris was his demise:

He should have been hugging babies and otherwise schmoozing his constituents in his district in a last minute effort to get out the vote.

But seven-term congressman Eric Cantor was so convinced he would come out the victor in his party’s primary, the Virginia Republican reportedly spent yesterday morning at a Starbucks in Washington, D.C. powwowing with lobbyists two hours away.

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Hubris is what ultimately brought the once-powerful Republican lawmaker down, political operatives say, not just his moderate political positions and perceived support for amnesty for illegal immigrants.

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Brat has twice served on Virginia’s Joint Advisory Board of Economists and is the former president of the Virginia Association of Economists. He a member of his local Republican Party, but he appears to have no past political experience. 

The first-time candidate spent less than $200,000 on his congressional race compared to Cantor’s $5 million. Cantor spent more money on steak dinners than Brat spent in total.

‘Brat was always an afterthought’ to Cantor and his campaign,’even as they spent a lot of money,’ a Virginia political operative told the Washington Post. ‘Central Virginia politics was changing around them and they did not see it.’

‘Cantor’s field effort was nonexistent,’ he said.

Instead, Cantor relied on sending mailers to constituents that informed them he was anti-amnesty and running TV ads that accused Brat of being ‘a liberal college professor’ in league with Democratic governor Tim Kaine.

The negative ads ended up backfiring.

Read more: Daily Mail