David Brat, an economics professor at Randolph-Macon College in

Ashland, Va., has just taught Washington and one of its most
powerful leaders a lesson in humility.
Brat was dismissed by many Republicans inside the Beltway and
beyond. They saw an upstart without the brawn, dollars or organization
to depose the second-most-powerful man in the House.
He did it by casting himself to the right of House Majority Leader Eric
Cantor on immigration and the Affordable Care Act and, more
important, by giving pumped-up primary voters and conservative
talkers, including Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham, an opportunity to
make an anti-establishment statement. Last month, Brats tea party
supporters booed Cantor at a key party meeting in his district. On
Tuesday night, about 200 of them erupted in joy at a nondescript
building in an office park in Glen Allen.