Rep. Eric Cantor Climbs GOP Ladder; The sole Jewish member of the House Republican Caucus, Rep. Eric Cantor impresses observers with his solid conservative values and strong leadership

Insight on the News, Nov 10, 2003

Byline: John Berlau, INSIGHT

When Rep. Eric Cantor was a child in Richmond, Va., he was one of the few Jews to attend Collegiate, an elite private, predominantly Christian school. Now, as the GOP congressman for Virginia's 7th Congressional District that includes Richmond, he is the sole Jewish member of the House Republican Caucus. Yet in neither situation has Cantor ever been an outsider for long. At school, he became a leader of his class. And since coming to Congress in 2001, after nine years in the Virginia House of Delegates, Cantor quickly has climbed the leadership ladder again. Early this year, House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) named Cantor his chief deputy majority whip. This is a position that was held just four years ago by Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), now the Speaker the House. Cantor also serves on House Ways and Means, the powerful tax-writing committee.

Pro-American, pro-gun, pro-life, pro-Israel and for school choice, Cantor has a lifetime rating of 100 percent from the American Conservative Union and fast is becoming a favorite on the conservative speaker circuit. "Cantor has built a reputation as a smooth political operator, a workhorse, and an articulate, energetic spokesman for the cause," writes savvy political reporter Susan J.

Crabtree in an article in the conservative Weekly Standard. Political observers are talking about him as a future candidate for one of the top House leadership posts, and Virginia politicos are talking about him as a potential U.S. Senate candidate should GOP incumbent John Warner retire in 2008.

Picture profile recently caught up with Cantor in his office in the Speaker's Lobby on the House side of the U.S. Capitol.

Insight: How did you become a conservative and a Republican?

Eric Cantor: I am one of the few Jews my age to have grown up in this country with Republican parents. My father was very involved in the mid to late 1970s with the Republican Party in Virginia, and one of his friends, Dick Obenshain, actually ran for Senate and probably would have been elected. He was the party's nominee in 1978 and was killed in a plane crash. That's when John Warner, who was married to actress Elizabeth Taylor, became our party's nominee.

My father was attracted to the party because of its principles, and he and my mother got very involved at the grass-roots level as Republicans in the Richmond area. He was treasurer of the state for Reagan-Bush in 1984. So early on I was out there handing out literature at polls, walking door-to-door with candidates and was exposed to a lot of political activity. In college I interned for my House predecessor, Tom Bliley, and I had a great experience doing that. I caught the political bug when I was his driver during his first re-election campaign.

My family was always in business, and as I progressed through school I began to understand that what makes this country so great is the opportunity that we all have to pursue our dreams. This Ronald Reagan quote, "America is too great for small dreams," inspired me to think about what I wanted for my family and for our country. It's all about unleashing the power of the individual and the ability for us to determine our own fate. After graduate school, I worked with my two brothers and my father and his brother and came to understand how difficult it is to run a family business.

Q: What business is that?

A: It was called TrustMore Mortgage. We had a bunch of real-estate-development and real-estate-finance entities. Again, it's so difficult for someone to go out as an independent entrepreneur, daring and assuming risk, much less when government entities that know little or nothing about your business decide they're going to license and regulate and tax you.

My experience in state government showed that often people who are in government have never served in the private sector and don't understand the impact government decisions can have on business and jobs. And that really has guided me in advocating that we make sure that we keep the focus on the private sector, that we keep the focus on the engine of opportunity that is American business. That's not to say that there isn't a role for government, but we really need to provide an environment in which the individual and private-sector businesses can grow because that's ultimately how we create jobs and opportunity for communities across this country.

I never have been one to subscribe to class warfare. I never have been one to say, "Hey, there's a natural dichotomy between big bad business on one side and poor little people on the other." Because, if you think about it, what is business? A business is a collection of management, employees and shareholders, and shareholders are families out there trying to make a living as well.

So when you're going to take the approach to say, "Hey, we just can't tolerate this. We're going to tell credit-card companies and banks what they can and cannot charge for their product," that's like telling McDonald's what they can charge for a hamburger. That's neither fair nor efficient. Those are price controls. We've been down that path before in this country and we know it doesn't work. What works is competition. What works is allowing the market to grow, allowing consumers the biggest selection for choices among products.