But he said there was never a day in which he did not put the interests of the 7th District first.

In the recent filing period, more than $290,000 was spent with Creative Direct, a direct mail operation. An additional $50,000 paid for advertising with Acquire Digital and more than $64,000 with Advantage Inc. for what’s listed as phone banks.

Brat, a Randolph-Macon College economics professor who beat Cantor 56 percent to 44 percent in the primary, may have benefited from the mailings by getting a boost in name ID.

Daniel Palazzolo, professor of political science at the University of Richmond, said money is traditionally correlated with margin of victory, as the more someone has the more it can benefit the candidate’s chances. But that’s only to a certain point and the situation in the 7th District was on a different scale, he said.

“Not only was the mismatch huge in terms of amount of money he had raised compared to Brat, but it didn’t have anything to do with money,” he said. “Except, possibly Cantor spent too much time raising it.”