Cantor’s loss: The Jewish factor
Eric Cantor, the House of Representatives’ majority leader and only Jewish Republican, has officially been buried. One day after a stunning loss to Tea Party challenger Dave Brat--who ran an aggressive campaign vowing for free-market change and denouncing Congress's bipartisan budget deal--the high-potential politician announced that he would resign his leadership post. Pundits and policy makers have wasted no time shoveling in the dirt, offering myriad explanations for the inevitability of Cantor's fall from grace (despite nobody having predicted it beforehand). Many have homed in on one component of Cantor's demise: the Jewish factor.
The New York Times argued that Cantor's Jewishness had become a liability:
David Wasserman, a House political analyst at the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, said another, more local factor has to be acknowledged: Mr. Cantor, who dreamed of becoming the first Jewish speaker of the House, was culturally out of step...
