Eric Cantor Defeated by a Conservative
Who Rips Crony Capitalism, Opposes Immigration Reform
John Nichols on June 11, 2014 - 12:21
AM ET
Tea Party winner focused on opposing immigration reform.
From the start of the campaign, Brat was
aggressive in his opposition to immigration reform—attacking Cantor for making
tepid attempts to move the GOP toward a more moderate position on the issue.
But even Brat’s crude campaigning on immigration came with an anti-corporate twist.
“Eric Cantor doesn’t represent you, he represents large corporations seeking a
never-ending supply of cheap foreign labor,” the challenger argued.
Because Brat highlighted immigration policy as part of the
campaign that upset Cantor, it is likely that Republican leaders will move toward
an even sharper stance in opposition to meaningful reform. That likelihood led
Dream Act Coalition co-director Cesar Vargas to say that with Cantor’s
defeat—after being attacked as “too soft on immigration”—“there is no chance of
getting anything done legislatively on the subject through the summer, after
which it would be difficult to get anything done with presidential speculation beginning.”
Vargas argues that instead of offering House Republicans
more time to act on immigration reform, the president “should offer deportation
relief, and other forms of administrative relief, now.”
