Eric Cantor to surrender House GOP leadership post in July
WASHINGTON — Repudiated at the polls, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor intends to resign his leadership post at the end of next month...
Lawmakers in both parties said the majority leader’s defeat and the prospect of a change within the Republican high command probably signal the demise of immigration legislation along the lines President Barack Obama is seeking....
One Republican said he feared the effects of Cantor’s defeat could be debilitating for the party and the government.
Interviewed on MSNBC, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he was worried that Cantor’s stunning loss may lead to even more congressional gridlock. Asked if he thought immigration legislation was dead, he replied, “I’m concerned that Ted Cruz supporters, Rand Paul supporters, are going to use this as an excuse” to shut down the government...
Brat campaigned as a foe of immigration legislation, and said Cantor was likely to help immigrants living in the United States illegally gain amnesty if given a new term in the House...
The impact of Cantor’s surprise loss on the fate of immigration legislation in the current Congress seemed clear. Conservatives will now be emboldened in their opposition to legislation to create a path to citizenship for immigrants living in the country illegally, and party leaders who are sympathetic to such legislation will likely be less willing to try....
“The Republican Party has been completely swallowed by the tea party. I mean, any debate over whether the tea party controls the Republican Party has ended,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the Democratic national chair, said on MSNBC.
