Eric Cantor

Eric Cantor: The Representative of Virginia’s 7th Congressional District

Eric Cantor is most known for being the Republican representative for the 7th congressional district of Virginia for the U.S. House of Representatives. He is also the current House Majority Leader of the 112th Congress.

Eric Cantor was born on June 6, 1963 in Richmond, Virginia. He graduated from the Collegiate School in Richmond, a preparatory school, in 1980, and then attended George Washington University from 1981 and then received his undergraduate degree in 1985. During college, Eric Cantor interned at the office of Tom Bliley, a House Republican of Virginia.He then went to William and Mary Law School where he obtained a Juris Doctor in 1988 as well as a Master of Science degree in 1989 from Columbia University.

From 1992 to 1991, Eric Cantor served in the Virginia House of Delegates. He was on several different committees throughout his time there including:

• Co-chairman on the Committee on Claims.

• Committee on General Laws

• Committee on Science and Technology

• Committee on Courts of Justice

• Committee on Corporation Insurance and Banking

In 2000, Eric Cantor announced that he intended to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after Tom Bliley left office, with the support of Bliley’s administration as well as with endorsement by Bliley during the primary election.

Eric Cantor became a member in 2001 and was assigned to the Committee on House Financial Services, Committee on House International Relations and the Committee on House Ways and Means. He also sat on the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism & Unconventional Warfare as the chairman.

A few weeks after his second term, he was elected to be the Republican Whip for the 111th Congress, making him the second ranking Republican in the house at the time. He then became the Majority Leader in 2011 at the start of the 112th Congress.

Some of Eric Cantor’s more significant political positions and votes include:

• Supportive of strong relations between the United States and Israel

• Opposing giving public funds towards embryonic stem cell research

• Opposes same sex marriages

• Opposed elective abortion, and has an entirely pro-life voting record

• Voting against the banning of discrimination due to sexual orientation

• Opposed to gun control

• Supporter of free trade, for example with Australia, Peru, Chile, and Singapore

• Voting for the TARP program, the bank bailout

• Voting against raising the minimum wage in 2007

• Voting against the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

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