Larry Sabato said he believes Ingraham's support was the deciding factor in Brat's upset win.
His campaign had reached out to democrats to “get rid of Eric Cantor,” according to Larry Sabato.
Larry Sabato said that Cantor’s comeback will not happen overnight.
Virginia’s governor sustained a critical reversal when his fellow Democrats lost control of the state Senate with the surprise resignation of Sen. Phillip P. Puckett (D-Russell). “It’s very bad news — bad karma can ruin a governorship,” University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato said. “He’s got 3 1/2 years to turn it around, but it was a real setback.”
"It is amusing that this small college—Randolph-Macon College—is going to have its own congressman," Larry J. Sabato said in an interview with Rachel Maddow on her MSNBC show on Tuesday evening. "And all I can say is, I’m glad I’m not there because the faculty wars are bad enough when you don’t have two faculty members running against each other for Congress. So good luck to them."
But analysts do say that Mr. Brat — who has a divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and often invokes God in his speeches — appeals to Christian conservatives in a way that Mr. Cantor simply cannot. “I think he was able to be an attractive candidate to that particular constituency,” said Geoffrey Skelley, a political analyst at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. “Cantor doesn’t employ that kind of rhetoric.”
Geoffrey Skelley, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, termed Brat's victory “a 9.0 on the Richter scale.”
"That is ... honestly, it's just not possible," said Geoffrey Skelley, an associate editor at Sabato's Crystal Ball, the publication headed by University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato. "That's a bunch of bunk."
The new home of the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital is gearing up to open to the public Saturday. The Battle Building is a seven-story, $140 million complex that encompasses more than 200,000 square feet. It will hold all 36 of UVa’s pediatric care specialists, 12 operating rooms and obstetricians’ offices.
Each floor contains interactive walls - sort of like a Rubik's Cube. They're based on children's story books. “Every child has a story. We really wanted to build on that. If you have a special needs child or if you have a non-special needs child, that child has a story. Using the storytelling theme, children can get engaged. It keeps them busy. It helps them relax while they wait for an appointment, and it's just fun,” said Karin League, associate chief of UVA Children’s Hospital.
By Kyle Kondik, managing editor of Sabato's Crystal Ball at the U.Va. Center for Politics... as of right now, the best explanation seems to be a combination of factors that have more to do with Cantor and his position than with larger forces in American life.