White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s stunning primary loss Tuesday shows that Republicans’ are engaged in a bad political strategy.
“I do think that this outcome does provide some evidence to indicate that the strategy of opposing nearly everything and supporting hardly anything is not just a bad governing strategy, it is not a very good political strategy either,” Earnest told reporters traveling with President Obama. “That is why the president has pursued a different approach (and) … has laid out what his priorities are.”
Cantor, R-Va., was defeated Tuesday in a barely watched Republican primary by a little-known challenger who hammered Cantor as soft on illegal immigration and other hot button conservative causes. Professor David Brat easily defeated Cantor, who was first elected to the Richmond area House seat in 2000.
Earnest questioned the notion some have that the defeat means that a rewrite of immigration laws is now doomed.
“Majority Leader Cantor campaigned very aggressively against common sense, bipartisan immigration reform but yet in the analysis there are some who suggest that his election was a key to getting immigration reform done,” Earnest said. “I am not quite sure how people have reached that conclusion. It is the view of the White House that there is support all across the country for common sense bipartisan immigration reform.”