The Question We're all Asking: Who is Dave Brat?

     He did what has never been done before, bringing down a House Majority Leader in a primary challenge and totally shaking up the GOP establishment. 

     http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/06/stunning-tea-party-victory-for-tea.html

     http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/eric-cantor-john-boehner-house-republicans-107689.html?hp=f3

     He's somebody maybe Scott Sumner would love: after all, he's an economics professor. Sumner always says that only the opinions of economists matter on economic questions and we now have an economist running for the House in Virginia. 

   " Brat, a Michigan native, is 49 years old. He’s spent the last 18 years working as an economics professor at Randolph Macon College, a school of around 1,200 students located in Ashland, Va. According to news reports, he also spent time working as an economist in the Army and at the accounting firm Arthur Andersen."

    "He earned his bachelors degree from Hope College, a small liberal arts college in Holland, Mich. He would go on to get a doctorate in economics from American University. Brat, who is Catholic, got his masters from Princeton Theological Seminiary, an institution that, according to its mission statement, “prepares women and men to serve Jesus Christ in ministries marked by faith, integrity, scholarship, competence, compassion, and joy, equipping them for leadership worldwide in congregations and the larger church, in classrooms and the academy, and in the public arena.”

     Brat launched his campaign in January. Like many tea party-aligned candidates, he said he wanted to address the nation’s ballooning deficit and that he wanted to be Cantor’s “term limit.”

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/06/2014-virginia-primary-election-dave-brat-107688.html#ixzz34JtbZwBP

     I'd say that's just what we need: another deficit scold with the deficit increasing by leaps and bounds... Oh wait. He does say 'there nothing Hard Right about me.'

     "David Brat, the economics professor who upset House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, said Tuesday after his shocking win that that his victory wasn't a case of the tea party beating the GOP establishment because he ran on the "Republican creed."

     "If you go door to door knocking, the American people know the country is headed in the wrong direction," Brat told Fox News's Sean Hannity. "I ran on the Republican creed."

     "The issue is the Republican Party has been paying too much attention to Wall Street, and not enough attention to Main Street," he said.

      "He also dismissed the notion that he had a far-right ideology, which led him to challenge Cantor. During the campaign, Brat repeatedly criticized Cantor for his alleged support of what Brat called "amnesty" as part of immigration reform."

     "Just look at my biography," he said. "There's nothing hard right or far right about anything."

      "I ran on free markets," he added later. "I don’t know that those are right or left."

     http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/david-brat-hannity-interview-win

     I'm telling you, this is the Scott Sumner candidate-that's exactly what he'd say about 'free markets.' Obviously the Tea Partiers are taking this as major vindication. 

     "Tea Partiers were visibly giddy about Cantor's loss."

    "It doesn’t matter what office you hold or how powerful you are. If you lose touch with activists on the ground, then your seat is in danger," FreedomWorks president Matt Kibbe said in a statement.
Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel (R), a tea party favorite who is in a tight runoff election against Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) also sent out an email titled "we just beat Eric Cantor."

     Still maybe the luckiest person is the Democratic Virginia candidate for Cantors seat who no doesn't have to face him but instead gets to face a guy named 'Dave Brat.'

      "Randolph-Macon College Professor Jack Trammell, the Democrat who secured the nomination in the district held by the newly defeated House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), released a statement Tuesday that said Virginians are "hungry for radical change" after "dysfunctional and reckless politics."

       http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/dem-running-for-cantor-s-seat-virginia-hungry-for-radical-change

       So this race will come down to a battle of the professors.