insurgent in a district mostly latino, that in itself doesn t capture some of the texture of new york politics. charles rangel we think of him as the black politician, his father is puerto rican. his district has always included east harlem which has been heavily latino for decades, so he s been a crossover politician, been sort of a bridge-builder in a lot of different ways so running a straight ethnic campaign wouldn t have worked in this case. you wouldn t have necessarily expected it to. that plus a lot of the usual kind of mistakes that campaigns often make. you you size it all up, and it is rational and logical that rangel would have won. man, was rangel not anything like eric cantor. he took this as a serious challenge. is eric cantor a one-off? yes. we do not have a story of dave brat last night. you know who lost last night, sarah palin, sean hannity, all
the one thing i would point out again, the hint on the horizon here. just about a month ago, eric cantor s handpicked party boss was defeated for a local seat for the district committee chairmanship after they had an iron grip on that position. julian that was obviously seen as a warning sign. from my understanding derrick kitts tweeted out something that more people voted in this 2014 primary than in the 2012 primary in the presidential year. the question is, is that all republican tea party-types? or an open primary where democrats can swarm over and vote against eric cantor because they dislike him so much? reporter: well, virginia is not a state for open primaries here. it s probable a mix of both as you pointed out. there was no major tea party group that endorsed dave brat, but the underpinning of this
react. i suspect that s what we saw in the 7th district of virginia. congressman, you just used the phrase people want you to get things done. given the results last night in the cantor election what are the prospects for something, getting anything done, not just this term, but the following term leading into a presidential election. are they zero or where are they? i think people make a big mistake if they confuse the result in eric s race with getting immigration reform done. the question on immigration reform is not if we ll get it done, it s when we ll get it done. it s going to get done. even the majority of republicans throughout the country, including eric cantor s own congressional district support immigration reform. comprehensive immigration reform. what people want to know how to get it done so we don t have to get it ton in ten years. i believe what we re hearing
opponent about specifically the immigration and the dream act, something that eric cantor wants. and it sort of umps credibility and urgency. oh, by the way, throw in a low turnout primary and it all came together. so, chuck, the question is what happened to lindsey graham in south carolina, the guy in the original gang of six or gang of eight. or in fact so low by tea party members in that state. they didn t call it amnesty. they called it grahamnesty. lindsay want easily. and the south carolina primary more conservative than virginia 7th. i don t know. that is not a right wing, red hot district. however, this was actually a redrawn district to become more republ republican and more conservative during the last cycle. let s not split hairs. but the larger issue, why say it s because there wasn t a
joe. mark halperin with us. and joy reid. in washington, the editorial director of the national journal, ron fournier. a lot to get to this morning. let s get right to it. one of the most powerful leaders in congress is on his way out. if you haven t heard the name dave brat, who is dave brat? well, you re not alone. brat, a college professor, has unseated eric cantor winning by 12 points in the republican primary. it is an upset that has sent shock waves through washington. cantor who rode a wave of tea party victories in 2010 to become house majority leader suddenly found himself on the wrong end of support. and addressed stunned supporters last night. obviously, we came up short. i know there s a lot of long faces here tonight. and it s disappointing, sure. but i believe in this country.