Did Eric Cantor lose because he's Jewish?

Did Eric Cantor lose because he&#039;s Jewish?

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

last updated 8 January 2015

No one saw it coming, and we're still trying to figure out how exactly House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) ended up losing his seat in a stunning upset to David Brat, an economics professor aligned with the Tea Party. But one theory that has been floated is that Cantor, the only Jew in the House majority, may have been out of step with his increasingly homogenous district.

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 with a redrawn district that was more rural, more gun-oriented, and more conservative.