“I’m in shock,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) said in response to the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to David Brat, a small-town tea party activist, in Tuesday’s Virginia primary. No kidding: McHenry has received at least $60,000 from Cantor’s extensive fundraising network over the years — and he’s not the only one who’s benefited from the generosity of the No. 2 House Republican.

Cantor has been nursing leadership ambitions since at least 2003, when he became chief deputy whip, the No. 4 GOP post in the House. Since then, he has spread donations far and wide to Republicans running for office or re-election. Over more than a decade, his Every Republican Is Crucial PAC has given at least $ 8.3 million to 500 candidates, primarily in House races. That’s more than Cantor has ever spent on himself in any given race.

He’s made sound political investments over the years. The top recipients of ERIC PAC include Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.), who may soon compete to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the majority whip and No. 3 Republican in the House. Scalise, a member of the Tea Party Caucus, has received a total of $50,000 from ERIC PAC, while Roskam, the current chief deputy whip, has received a little over $45,000.

The list of longtime proteges also includes Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who has drawn Cantor’s support since her first successful run for the House in 2004 and is now chair of the House Republican Conference. And with sound investments comes solid money: the financial sector is a major source of funding for the PAC, with top donors including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup Inc and Blackstone Group.

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With Cantor’s defeat, Republicans are losing a formidable fundraising apparatus for the establishment GOP as well as for promising young candidates. The Cantor Victory Fund was the third largest joint fundraising committee this cycle, raising more than $4 million — and funneling almost $1 million to the National Republican Congressional Committee. The fund has also given millions to the 7th District Republican Committee, which last month ousted a Cantor ally for the chairmanship in an early omen of his defeat.

Cantor was also affiliated with an extensive network of joint fundraising committees that supported smaller candidates. Many of them include “Young Guns” in their title. Since 2010, 16 JFCs have been registered from Richmond, VA and administered by the same treasurer, Rose Ann Janis. These include the Cantor Victory Fund, the Cantor Young Guns Victory Fund, and the Cantor Leadership Fund.

But Cantor’s leadership PAC has also given to more conservative House members who were part of the tea party movement that eventually toppled him. The top 20 recipients of ERIC PAC include Reps. Lynn Westmoreland, a Republican from Georgia who has fought to repeal the 1965 Voting Rights Act; Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) who has said of Obama that “I do know this: in his heart, he is not American”; and Tim Walberg, who in 2010 expressed doubt over Obama’s religious affiliation on a radio show. Cantor has also been loyal to Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), who has received funding from ERIC PAC since she first ran for office in 2006.

Follow Lalita on Twitter at @lalitaclozel



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