In a stunning upset, Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House majority leader, has lost the Republican primary to Dave Brat, a Richmond-area college professor who ran to Cantor’s right.
Cantor was expected to cruise to victory, although he had been pushed to portray himself as a hard-liner, especially on immigration.
The results were foreshadowed at a district convention last month in Henrico County, Cantor’s home base, when conservatives ousted one of his loyalists as chairman while he looked on.