David Brat that is. He is the Teaparty bagger who just upset The House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor!
I was settling into my chair just a little after 8pm, trying to see what Chris Hayes had to talk about on his MSNBC show. I totally took for granted the elections going on in Virginia, as I was sure there would be no news made tonight. A Brat named David, a Teaparty member, was challenging one of the untouchables in Republican politics, Eric Cantor.
My attitude was, move on folks, there’s nothing to see here.
Chris Hayes began and within the first five minutes, another MSNBC host, Rachel Maddow broke in with the “Breaking News!”
I knew something big was happening, but to think that Cantor had lost never crossed my mind. Then Rachel made the announcement – Eric Cantor has lost his House seat, as per the Associated Press. The graphic was then shown and I immediately saw why the race was called for Brat. It wasn’t a loss by Cantor, Brat completely blew him out of the election waters!
With 83% of the precincts reporting, David Brat was already leading Cantor by double digits – 56% to 44%.
“Obviously we came up short,” Cantor said as he began his concession speech. “I know there’s a lot of long faces here tonight and it’s disappointing, sure, but I believe in this country, I believe there’s opportunity around the next corner for all of us. So I look forward to continuing to fight with all of you for the things that we believe in. For the Conservative cause because those solutions of ours are the answers to the problems that so many people face today. Thank you very much.”
Applause by his campaign audience!
I’m still in shock!
