GOP agenda on hold until the party analyzes Eric Cantor’s loss

By: American Decency Staff

t's only natural that a who's-up-and-who's-down leadership struggle would consume House Republicans after the stunning primary defeat of Majority Leader Eric Cantor. There's a big hole in the party's top echelon, and it's got to be filled.

But after a new majority leader is selected, and the leadership slate finished, GOP lawmakers will have to figure out what Cantor's loss means for the Republican agenda. Right now, they have no idea.

That's because they don't know why Cantor lost. Sure, there have been dozens of stories purporting to explain the vote, but for the moment, it's all just guesswork.

The fact that Cantor lost by 11 points in a race in which his campaign pollster projected a 34-point lead is pretty clear evidence Cantor did not know what was going on in his district. He didn't know how many people would go to the polls — turnout was far higher than in Cantor's primary in 2012 — and he didn't know what motivated them.

Explanations for the loss focus on a mix of policy and politics. "We have some theories, but we have no clear proof of which one of those theories is correct," says a well-connected Republican strategist. The operative then went down four of the most popular:

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