The House GOP Leader, Eric Cantor, suffered a primary loss that shocked Capitol Hill on Tuesday night. The loss could cause a destabilizing effect on key legislation, according to Fox News.
“Everybody is just in shock right now,” Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., said.
Cantor, who has served seven terms as a Virginia congressman, announced on Wednesday that he will step down from his leadership post this summer. Cantor was defeated by Dave Brat, who is a professor of economics.
With the upset win for Brat, immigration legislation in Congress could be affected, possibly placing discussions into a massive freeze.
“The wage-earning voters of Rep. Cantor’s district apparently felt abandoned by his immigration positions that virtually ignored their anxiety about stagnant wages and high unemployment and that projected primary concern for unlawful foreign visitors and employers seeking more foreign workers,” NumbersUSA President Roy Beck said in a statement.
On Twitter, White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer said, “Cantor’s problem wasn’t his position on immigration reform, it was his lack of a position.”
A source said that Republicans were “playing with fire” and the loss “will force the Republicans to move further to the right.”
“You have what could be chaos for leadership. They could get caught up in the politics of this and that gets them away from any legislative agenda,” the source said.