Eric Cantor Didn't Campaign Enough In His Home District

Rep. Tom Rooney, (R-Okeechobee), pointed out that Eric Cantor didn't pay enough attention to his district.

“People are trying to hypothesize that it’s because of immigration or this, that or the other but I think when you boil every race down to the local level, that’s where the answer lies,” Rooney said this afternoon.

“At the very local level, if somebody’s there saying you’re out of touch and you’re not there to respond to it, it’s going to hurt you,” Rooney said. “If you are not there to respond to allegations or charges, people are going to assume that they’re true.”

Ezra Klein reports that Cantor wasn't even in his district on election day. Democratic strategist Dave “Mudcat” Saunders told Time Cantor was AWOL in his district.

“Was immigration an issue? Yes. Was it the deciding factor to the tune of 11%? Not no, hell no. It’s a fairy tale,” Virginia Democratic strategist Dave “Mudcat” Saunders said. “People talk. And they talk about Eric Cantor. ‘Where is he?’ His constituent services suck. He was never in the district. And when he was in the district and he went out, he had a [security] entourage with him. He was out gallivanting all over the country being a big deal and this is a lesson.”

The big lesson is Cantor simply did not campaign in his district. Cantor deserved his primary defeat.

Update: a poll by Public Policy Polling, released on the day of the primary, found aCantor with 30 percent approval rating with voters in his district. Immigration wasn't as major an issue as nationalo pundits made it out to be. 40 percent of respondants said they strongly support the Senate immigration reform bill. Only 9 percent opposed.

The fact is Cantor wasn't liked by his constituents. His lack of campaign in the district only made matters worse.