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Did Cooter bring down Cantor? ? CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs
One of the most powerful Republicans in Washington lost his seat Tuesday to an upstart political novice named Dave Brat. Cantor spent ten times the amount Brat did in an attempt to retain the seat he has held since 2001.
But maybe it wasn’t the breakout popularity of Brat or the unpopularity of Cantor that led to his defeat. Perhaps it was Cooter from “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
Last week former Rep. Ben Jones, who played Cooter Davenport in the TV series, issued a public appeal to urge Democrats to vote for Brat in Tuesday’s primary.
“By voting for David Brat in the Seventh District Republican primary, we Democrats, independents, and Libertarians can make a big difference in American politics. It is your right to cast that vote,” Jones wrote
In the low-turnout open primary, where Democrats can vote in Republican races, the idea is not so crazy. A little more than 10% of the electorate voted. Brat received 36,000 votes to Cantor’s nearly 29,000
But Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said Brat also played a role in getting Democrats to vote against Cantor.
“You had Brat operatives going to Democratic Party committees, even on election eve, asking them to go to the polls to get rid of Eric Cantor,” Sabato said on CNN. “It had nothing to do with Dave Brat. There were robocalls to Democrats in that district, telling Democrats come out to the polls.”
One of the most powerful Republicans in Washington lost his seat Tuesday to an upstart political novice named Dave Brat. Cantor spent ten times the amount Brat did in an attempt to retain the seat he has held since 2001.
But maybe it wasn’t the breakout popularity of Brat or the unpopularity of Cantor that led to his defeat. Perhaps it was Cooter from “The Dukes of Hazzard.”
Last week former Rep. Ben Jones, who played Cooter Davenport in the TV series, issued a public appeal to urge Democrats to vote for Brat in Tuesday’s primary.
“By voting for David Brat in the Seventh District Republican primary, we Democrats, independents, and Libertarians can make a big difference in American politics. It is your right to cast that vote,” Jones wrote
In the low-turnout open primary, where Democrats can vote in Republican races, the idea is not so crazy. A little more than 10% of the electorate voted. Brat received 36,000 votes to Cantor’s nearly 29,000
But Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said Brat also played a role in getting Democrats to vote against Cantor.
“You had Brat operatives going to Democratic Party committees, even on election eve, asking them to go to the polls to get rid of Eric Cantor,” Sabato said on CNN. “It had nothing to do with Dave Brat. There were robocalls to Democrats in that district, telling Democrats come out to the polls.”
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