Cantor Cancels Keynote Address to Pro-Amnesty Group After Primary Loss

After his shocking primary loss on Tuesday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) canceled his keynote address to the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) that was scheduled for Wednesday morning. 

Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) took Cantor’s spot.

Jay Timmons, the CEO of NAM, has been one of the more prominent amnesty supporters. He recently joined Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue on a panel where Timmons announced that he thought Congress would pass amnesty legislation during the lame-duck session as the final act of this Congress.

After Cantor’s loss, though, amnesty legislation may be all but dead for this Congress.

During the final month of the campaign, Cantor tried to hide his past support of amnesty legislation by sending anti-amnesty mailers to voters in his district while Brat told voters that a vote for Cantor was a vote “for open borders.” Brat, in an appearance on Breitbart News Sunday, said his primary against Cantor was the “last chance” to stop amnesty legislation.

“The central policy issue in this race has become Cantor’s absolute determination to pass an amnesty bill. Cantor is the No. 1 cheerleader in Congress for amnesty,” Brat wrote in a Richmond Times-Dispatch op-ed in the final week of the campaign. “This is not the Republican way to fix our economy and labor markets.”