Tea Party-backed Dave Brat Defeats Rep. Eric Cantor

The online world was caught up in a social-media storm yesterday after Tea Party-backed candidate Dave Brat defeated pro-amnesty Republican and House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor in the Virginia primary election. Sources say Cantor’s defeat is without precedent. No sitting House majority leader has ever lost a primary. The victory apparently turned on the issue of illegal immigration. From Fox News:

That strategy immediately raises questions about the fate of immigration legislation in Congress. GOP leaders had been giving conflicting signals over whether they would try to advance some version of what the Senate passed, perhaps after the primaries.

But Cantor’s loss could send immigration talks into a deep freeze. Opponents of the proposed legislation pointed to Brat’s victory as a lesson to other members.

“The wage-earning voters of Rep. Cantor’s district apparently felt abandoned by his immigration positions that virtually ignored their anxiety about stagnant wages and high unemployment and that projected primary concern for unlawful foreign visitors and employers seeking more foreign workers,” NumbersUSA President Roy Beck said in a statement.

“This is a miracle from God that just happened,” Brat said. Although the Tea Party backed him, Brat told Fox News that he was “a candidate focused on Republican principles including free markets and ‘adherence to the Constitution.'”

The establishment right needs many more defeats like last night’s. The Republican base opposes granting amnesty to people who enter and remain in the country in violation of our laws. Any immigration reform must include enforcing the law. Otherwise, “reform” is just a euphemism. The U.S. has the right to set its own borders and control who enters and remains here. There’s a process in place for people who seek to enter and remain in the U.S., which is a privilege, not a right. People who ignore the law shouldn’t be rewarded with citizenship in a country founded upon the rule of law.