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1. An opinion piece in the News Leader argues that Virginia should not indulge partisan calls to close the state's primaries after Eric Cantor lost his seat. Interestingly enough, one of the biggest names leading the charge to change state law to allow closed primaries is former Virginia Lt. Governor Bill Bolling. Bolling suspended his campaign for the 2013 gubernatorial election in November 2012 because the state GOP decided to change the method of nomination from a primary election to a conve

In American folklore, it is President Grant who coined the term “lobbyists” to designate those influence peddlers who attempted to bribe him with whiskey and cigars during his jaunts to the Willard Hotel in exchange for political favors. The term, in fact, is much older -- as is the practice itself. In 1792, for instance, veterans of the Continental Army from Virginia sent one William Hull to Washington, D.C. to petition for higher compensation. Lobbying went unregulated until 1946, when Congr

The president plans to sign an executive order banning companies that do business with the federal government from discriminating against gay and transgender employees. This could make life easier on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers currently employed for such companies, according to Sarah Ovink, sociology professor at Virginia Tech. "The most benefit will be for LGBT workers who are already employed in these types of jobs, who will no longer feel unfair retaliation," she said.

Editor's note: This article has been updated from the original published draft. The article said Mr. Terrell has first-hand experience with Somalia suspects. This is not the case, and the article has been edited accordingly to reflect the remarks of the candidate. With 42 percent of Americans self-identifying as independent, according to one 2014 Gallup poll, the time has never seemed better for independent candidates to try their luck in a largely two-party game. In May, Kevin Terrell, a cand

In June, the junior Republican senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul, weighed in on the always controversial issue of immigration reform. The libertarian-leaning darling of the tea party tread into precarious territory by supporting efforts to reform the country's immigration system, something that some say cost his colleague, U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), dearly. Paul reportedly took part in a conference call with the Partnership for the New American Economy, a pro-reform group, on June 11, prompt

Midterm elections tend to see lower voter turnout and less interest from the media. Midterm primary elections have even more paltry turnout numbers among those that even are able to vote. This year’s primary season though has been particularly interesting so far from Mississippi’s surprising run-off election between Thad Cochran and Chris McDaniel to Eric Cantor’s stunning defeat in Virginia. Now, heading into the general election, there is another twist from two Koch brothers, David and Charl

The results are in from Iraq’s parliamentary elections from April 2014. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition received 92 of parliament’s 328 seats. The absence of a clear majority means that over the following weeks and months, Iraq’s leading politicians will be trying to form alliances and broker deals that will produce a majoritarian coalition government. The results have many pundits feeling pessimistic. Some observers expect that Maliki will cobble together a broad Shi’a

On June 10, 2014, 55 percent of 65,000 voters from more than 700,000 residents in the seventh district of Virginia cast ballots in an open primary with one question. By an 11-point margin, they soundly rejected their 13-year incumbent, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Cantor had handily defeated previous primary opponents. However, nearly twenty thousand more constituents voted than in the 2012 primary. Those new primary voters overwhelmingly supported Cantor’s opponent, Dave Brat, a professo

Eric Cantor will no longer represent Virginia's 7th Congressional District. In what is arguably the biggest primary defeat since Republicans took control of the U.S. House in 2010, the chamber's majority leader was ousted by primary opponent Dave Brat.Who is Dave Brat? Brat is a 49-year-old economics professor at the Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. A candidate who identified himself as a principled candidate with no label, he campaigned on the promise to address the expanding nation

"The Tea Party has been a tremendously positive input, I think."                                                    --Eric Cantor, November 10, 2010 The election of 1820 was the beginning of the “Era of Good Feelings.” The Federalist Party of Hamilton, Washington, and Adams barely even existed and did not even field a candidate in the presidential election. James Monroe was re-elected by virtual acclamation without even having run a campaign. And the young Republic appeared to have licked, once