Dave Brat

David Brat
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 7th district
Incumbent
Assumed office November 12, 2014
Preceded by	Eric Cantor
Personal details
Born	David Alan Brat (1964-07-27) July 27, 1964 Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Laura Sonderman Brat
Children	2
Parents	Paul Nancy
Residence	Glen Allen, Virginia
Alma mater	Hope College (B.A.) Princeton Theological Seminary (M.Div.) American University (Ph.D)
Profession	Professor (economics)
Religion	Christian
Website	http://brat.house.gov/

David Alan "Dave" Brat (born July 27, 1964) is an American economist and member of the U.S. House of Representatives serving Virginia's 7th congressional district. Prior to his election to Congress, Brat was a professor at Randolph–Macon College. A Republican, he serves on these House Committees: Budget, Education and Workforce, and Small Business.

Brat defeated Democratic nominee Jack Trammell and Libertarian nominee James Carr on November 4, 2014.

Brat earlier defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the district's 2014 Republican primary on June 10, 2014. Brat's primary victory over Cantor made him the first primary challenger to oust a sitting House Majority Leader since the position's creation in 1899, and is considered one of the biggest upsets in congressional history.

Early life and education

Brat was born in Detroit on July 27, 1964. Brat's father, Paul, was a Doctor of Internal Medicine; his mother, Nancy, was employed as a social worker in Alma, Michigan, where he was raised. His family moved from Alma to Minnesota when David, the oldest of three boys, was in junior high. Brat graduated from Park Center Senior High School in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.

Brat attended Hope College in Michigan and received a B.A. in Business Administration in 1986; he also graduated with a Master's Degree in Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1990 and earned a Ph.D in economics from American University in 1995.

Academic career

After working for Arthur Andersen and as a consultant for the World Bank, Brat joined the faculty of Randolph–Macon College in 1996, where he served as chair of the department of economics, and taught courses including "Britain in the International Economy", "International Economic Development", and "Business Ethics".

From 2010 to 2012 Brat headed Randolph-Macon's BB&T Moral Foundations of Capitalism program, one of sixty similar programs and chairs in the philosophy and economics departments at United States universities devoted to the study of capitalism and morality, endowed by the BB&T Corporation.

In 2006 Brat was appointed by Virginia governor Tim Kaine to the Governor's Advisory Board of Economists, a position he continues to hold. He has also served on the board of directors of the Richmond Metropolitan Authority, and on the advisory board of the Virginia Public Access Project.

Political career

Special legislative assistant

From 2005 to 2011, Brat worked as a special legislative assistant to Virginia state senator Walter Stosch in the area of higher education. In 2006 he was appointed by Democratic governor Tim Kaine to serve on a bipartisan economic advisory council. He was later reappointed by Republican Governor Bob McDonnell.

2011 campaign for Virginia's 56th House of Delegates seat

In August 2011, Brat announced he was running for the Virginia House of Delegates seat for the 56th district. There was no primary, and six Republican leaders met and chose Peter Farrell, as the Republican nominee in the November 2011 general election.

2014 race for 7th congressional district

Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia, 2014 § District 7

Republican primary

Brat ran against House Majority Leader Eric Cantor for the Republican nomination for Virginia's 7th congressional district and defeated Cantor by a 12-point margin. Brat was outspent by Cantor 40 to 1: Cantor spent over $5 million, while Brat raised $200,000 and did not spend all of it. Brat's primary campaign was managed by 23-year-old Zachary Werrell. An analysis of campaign filings conducted by the Center for Responsive Politics concluded that Brat did not receive any donations from political action committees and ultimately conceded, "it's almost impossible to profile Brat's typical donor, because he had so few." Brat's win was a historic and stunning victory, as it was the first time a sitting House Majority Leader was defeated in his primary race since the position was created in 1899.

Compared with Cantor, described as aloof, Brat was characterized as knowing how to work a crowd. He ran an anti-establishment campaign criticizing government bailouts and budget deals while frequently invoking God and the Constitution in his speeches. During the campaign, Cantor criticized Brat as a "liberal professor" who had strong ties to Tim Kaine, Virginia's former Democratic governor and current junior Senator.

Brat ran well to Cantor's right, complaining that Cantor had a "crony-capitalist mentality", putting the interests of the corporate sector ahead of small businesses. Radio talk show host Laura Ingraham endorsed Brat's candidacy and hosted a rally with him in a Richmond suburb. Brat was also supported by radio talk show host Mark Levin and Ann Coulter. Chris Peace, a state legislator who collaborated with Brat on state budget issues at Randolph-Macon College, stated that Brat was inspired to run for Congress because of "His passion for the structure of government and belief in free markets."

Brat's victory was described in the press as exposing a "deep schism" in the Republican party between its conservative base and its business wing, as well as a split between establishment Republicans and tea party insurgents. Some libertarian oriented groups backed Brat like the Virginia Liberty Party.

Brat received support from, and gave credit for his win to local Tea Party groups in Virginia, but received no funding or endorsement from national Tea Party organizations. Brat has not self-identified with the Tea Party movement. Ron Rapoport, a political scientist at the College of William & Mary, has said Brat may be correctly identified as a "tea partier" only if the term is used as a catchall for "anti-establishment activist", while John Judis has opined that Brat could more correctly be described as a "right-wing populist". Matea Gold in The Washington Post stated, "the fact that Brat took off without the help of those organizations [national tea party groups] now makes it harder for them to claim his victory as their own."

During an interview with Sean Hannity on the night of his win, Brat said:

And I was blessed. I mean, it's a miracle. What do I attribute it to? First of all, I attribute it to God. And I'm utterly humbled and thankful. I'm a believer and so I'm humbled that God gave us this win. But right with that, God acts through people, and God acted through the people on my behalf.

General election

Brat faced Democratic nominee Jack Trammell, who is also a professor at Randolph-Macon, and James Carr, the Libertarian candidate, in the November general election. Brat was favored due to the 7th's significant Republican lean. The district has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+10, easily the most Republican district in eastern Virginia.

According to an article in The Boston Globe, Cantor announced plans to aid Brat by resigning from the United States Congress on August 18, so that a special election could be held on the same day as the general election. Thus the winner, in a race in which Brat is favored, would take office with the perks of seniority over other first time Republicans elected in the 2014 midterm elections and with the ability to participate in the lame duck session of Congress.

Brat defeated Trammell with 60.83% of the vote compared to Trammell's 36.95%. Libertarian candidate James Carr finished in third with 2.09% of the vote.

U.S. Representative

Dave Brat was sworn in on November 12, 2014 to finish Eric Cantor's term.

On January 6, 2015, Brat was one of twenty-five House Republicans to vote against John Boehner's re-election as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Boehner, who needed at least 205 votes, was re-elected with 216 votes. Though Brat supported Boehner earlier, he reversed his support after the House GOP leadership did not allow him to make an amendment to block a controversial executive order signed by President Barack Obama in a spending bill.

Committee assignments

• Committee on the Budget
• Committee on Education and the Workforce
  • Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education
  • Subcommittee on Workforce Protections
• Committee on Small Business
  • Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy and Trade
  • Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access

Economic philosophy

To Brat, culture matters in economic markets. He believes that the culture that produced Adam Smith was a Protestant culture and that fact and the ethics of that culture are important in understanding market efficiency. Brat advocated that Christians should more forcefully support free-market capitalism and behave more altruistically, in the manner of Jesus, so that "we would not need the government to backstop every action we take." According to Kevin Roose in a New York Magazine article, Brat "sees free-market economics as being intricately linked to ethics and faith and he makes the case that Adam Smith's invisible hand theory, should be seen in the context of Christianity". Furthering the central theme of Max Weber's seminal book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Brat argues in his 2004 paper Economic Growth and Institutions: The Rise and Fall of the Protestant Ethic? that "institutions such as religion, democracy and government anti-diversion policies all significantly enhance a country's long-run economic performance," and concludes that "the religion variable may be the strongest ex ante, exogenous institutional variable in the literature." In a paper titled Is Growth Exogenous? Taking Bernanke Seriously, Brat debates former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, asserting that Bernanke's work on economic growth overlooks religious institutions – in particular Protestant – in a country's economic growth, and that while savings rates, population growth, and human capital accumulation help drive economic growth, the larger factor is "the Protestant religious establishment", which Bernanke ignores.

Brat has blamed the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany on the lack of "unified resistance", adding, "I have the sinking feeling that it could all happen again, quite easily." Brat believes that countries with Protestant pasts have economic advantages over countries that do not, and that Protestantism "provides an efficient set of property rights and encourages a modern set of economic incentives" that often lead to "positive economic performance". He believes in Christ as a transformer of culture, and that capitalism is the key to world transformation, which can be achieved when capitalism and Christianity merge; if people follow the gospel, and as a consequence behave more morally, he argues, then the markets will improve.

Zack Beauchamp from Vox Media has said that Brat believes that "most economists are motivated by philosophy rather than science: they're secretly utilitarians who believe that the goal of public policy is to produce the greatest good for the greatest number."

Although Brat has stated he does not identify as a Randian, he has acknowledged having been influenced by Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged and has expressed appreciation of Ayn Rand's case for human freedom and capitalism.

Political positions

Economy

Brat has promised to vote against raising the debt ceiling for the first five years he is in Congress, and he attacked Cantor during the primary campaign for voting to end the federal government shutdown of 2013.

Education

Brat opposes federally driven education policies such as the Common Core curriculum and No Child Left Behind.

Ethics reform

His decision to enter the Republican primary was driven largely by Cantor's role in weakening congressional ethics reform. Brat stated: "If you want to find out the smoking gun in this campaign, just go Google and type the STOCK Act and CNN and Eric Cantor."

Healthcare

Brat has stated he will "fight to defund and repeal Obamacare" and wants to "replace it with free-market solutions that lower costs, improve quality, and increase access to care".

National Security Agency

Brat has called for the National Security Agency to end bulk collection of phone records and has stated his support for statutory protections for e-mail privacy. He has argued that domestic intelligence activities have "spun out of control" and that "the NSA's indiscriminate collection of data on all Americans is a disturbing violation of our Fourth Amendment right to privacy."

Social issues

In 2011, Brat criticized the political Right for simultaneously advancing the pursuit of individual liberty while pushing laws restricting abortion, homosexuality and gambling, and the Left for simultaneously supporting progressive liberal individualism while coercing others to "fund every social program under the sun". However, his website states that Brat will "protect the rights of the unborn and the sanctity of marriage, and will oppose any governmental intrusion upon the conscience of people of faith".

Social Security and Medicare

Brat has criticized both political parties for not addressing Medicare and Social Security, stating, "neither side of the aisle will talk about the most important issues because that is going to involve pain." Brat advocates "market-based reforms" to these programs, as in his view, it is unfair that people pay less than they take out so these programs have to be slashed or eliminated. He advocates for private Social Security accounts. In September 2015 the congressman showed more political sensitivity to the program stating that fixes should included means testing as well as changes to the retirement age in order that the benefits won't have to be reduced by 30 percent later after unsuccessful congressional reform attempts.

Taxes

Brat advocates for an end to tax credits, deductions and loopholes, and calls for a flatter and more efficient tax code.

Term limits

Brat is a proponent of term limits for members of Congress. He has pledged, if elected, to serve a maximum of 12 years (six terms) in Congress.

Troubled Asset Relief Program

Brat has indicated he opposed TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program of 2008, and has stated that, if elected, he would "vote against bills that benefit big business over small business". He has stated: "I'm not against business. I'm against big business in bed with big government."

Terrorism

In an April 21, 2015, interview with radio talk show host Rusty Humphries, Brat claimed that the terrorist group ISIS has set up a base in Texas. "In our country it looks like we have an ISIS center in Texas now...You can't make up what a terrible problem this is." After the Texas Department of Public Safety responded that there was no substantiation for the claim, Brat's office said that he had really meant to say Mexico, not Texas, citing the conservative group Judicial Watch, which declined to provide any substantiation for its report.

Electoral history

Virginia's 7th Congressional District Republican Primary, 2014
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Dave Brat	36,105	55.53
	Republican	Eric Cantor (incumbent)	28,912	44.47
Total votes			65,017	100

Virginia's 7th Congressional District election, 2014
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Dave Brat	148,026	60.83
	Democratic	Jack Trammell	89,914	36.95
	Libertarian	James Carr	5,086	2.09
	Write-in		325	0.13
Total votes			243,351	100
	Republican hold

Publications

• "God and Advanced Mammon – Can Theological Types Handle Usury and Capitalism?" (2011)
• "An Analysis of the Moral Foundations in Ayn Rand"

Personal life

Brat was raised in the Presbyterian faith and his wife is a Roman Catholic. Splitting their time between two churches, they are parishioners of St. Mary Catholic Church in Richmond. Brat also identifies as a Calvinist and lists affiliations with Christ Episcopal Church, Third Presbyterian, and Shady Grove Methodist.

Brat moved to Virginia in 1996 with his wife, Laura. They live in Glen Allen, a suburb of Richmond. They have two children, Jonathan and Sophia.

Brat's brother, Dan, is a medical doctor specializing in neuropathology. He also serves as vice-chairman of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Emory University. His youngest brother, Jim, is a Los Angeles-based real estate attorney.

External links

• Congressman Dave Brat official U.S. House site
• Dave Brat for Congress
• Professor David Brat at Randolph-Macon College
• Dave Brat at DMOZ
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Profile at Project Vote Smart
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Legislation sponsored at The Library of Congress

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Eric Cantor	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Virginia's 7th congressional district November 4, 2014 – present	Incumbent
United States order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by Alma Adams D-North Carolina	United States Representatives by seniority 373rd	Succeeded by Donald Norcross D-New Jersey