Dave Brat’s shocking victory over House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) last week has inspired conservative underdogs like Joe Carr, a Tennessee state Representative who is challenging establishment Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) in an August 7th primary, to win their primaries against all odds.
Carr, who represents a district in Middle Tennessee, appeared on Breitbart News Sunday and told Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow that he is taking on Alexander because Alexander represents the sense of “complacency” and “malaise” in D.C. while illegal immigrants and the Obama administration’s lawlessness are assaulting the country’s sovereignty.
Carr has led on illegal immigration issues in the statehouse, successfully passing into law E-verify bills and others that prohibited taxpayer benefits to illegal immigrants and banned sanctuary cities.
He said his campaign has been building a grassroots network throughout the state in anticipation of a “seminal and catalyst event that was going to turn everything upside down” before the August primary. And Cantor’s upset was the spark that the campaign had been preparing for.
“As I’ve crossed the state, [voters] want a government that is responsive to the idea of personal responsibility, individual liberty, free and fair markets, and return to the sovereignty of the state,” Carr said. “Lamar Alexander is the absolute antithesis of that.”
He said more people are visiting his website and learning about him after Cantor’s loss, and voters are telling him they want a “reliable conservative” who is “reasonably articulate” to oust Alexander.
Carr said many of the themes that Brat used to topple Cantor, like tying his embrace of amnesty to his broader support of crony capitalist policies, can be used against Alexander, who has a C- grade from Numbers USA and poor ratings on sticking up for American workers.
“Cantor’s win is paying big dividends,” he said, while also noting that since polls have shown that Carr can win statewide in a reliably Republican state, the GOP establishment can’t use the “unelectable” argument against him.
Carr acknowledged that Breitbart News and Laura Ingraham held Cantor’s feet to the fire, and Carr went on Ingraham’s program last week to point out Alexander is just as vulnerable as Cantor, especially on the issue of amnesty.
Ingraham said that the anti-amnesty issue can unite American workers of all backgrounds and ethnicities, and she said that Alexander was like Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) because he disappears in the background on the most important issues.
Ingraham said that Alexander’s vote on the Senate’s amnesty bill “tells you all you need to know.”
“It’s big business, it’s the mindset of ‘you got to flood the country with a lot of cheap labor, you got to keep the Chamber happy,'” she said.
On Breitbart News Sunday, Carr questioned whether Alexander could even be considered a Republican since Alexander has gone against the Republican Party’s platform that is squarely against Obamacare, amnesty, and taxes.
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