Rep. Eric Cantor (R) Elected 2000, 3d term
Born:	June 6, 1963, Richmond
Home:	Richmond
Education:	George Washington U., B.A. 1985, Col. of William & Mary, J.D. 1988, Columbia U., M.S., 1989
Religion:	Jewish
Marital Status:	married (Diana)
Elected  Office:	VA House of Del., 1991-2000.
Professional Career:	Practicing atty., 1990-2000.
DC Office	329 CHOB20515, 202-225-2815; Fax: 202-225-0011; Web site: cantor.house.gov
State Offices	Culpeper, 540-825-8960; Richmond, 804-747-4073.
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In the center of Virginia, on a hill in downtown Richmond above the James River, is Thomas Jefferson's Capitol, one of the first classical-style buildings in North America, chaste and simple in the Jefferson style. A mile or so west is Monument Avenue, Richmond's grand 140-foot-wide boulevard, punctuated by circles, each with a statue of a Confederate hero--Robert E. Lee (62 feet tall, dedicated Memorial Day 1890), Jeb Stuart, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, Matthew Fountain Maury, "the Pathfinder of the Sea." Richmond is a monument to Jefferson and to the Confederacy; its metro area is only the third largest in the state, but it still sets the tone for Virginia, and is the home of many of the state's great institutions--Dominion Resources, Main Street banks, big law firms, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Richmond's metro area has grown far past its city borders, covering almost all of suburban Henrico and Chesterfield Counties and spreading into what was until recently countryside. For many years Richmond was riven by sharp racial differences. It was from here that Virginia's leaders called for massive resistance to desegregation in the 1950s; when Richmond elected its first black-majority council in the 1970s, the outgoing council deeded the statue of Lee to the state for fear it would be torn down. Now Richmond has come to a better place. Blacks have been a majority in the city for two decades now, and in 1989 Virginia elected a black governor, Douglas Wilder, who grew up on Church Hill, in a segregated neighborhood overlooking the Capitol. In January 2005, Wilder made a triumphant return as mayor, elected by a biracial majority. The state's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday pays homage to Confederate heroes and to the civil rights leader, and a statue of Richmond-born African-American tennis champion Arthur Ashe has been added to Monument Avenue. Richmond has been thriving economically with banking, securities, and health-care corporate offices and the Philip Morris headquarters. Politically, differences remain. Black-majority Richmond is solidly Democratic; Henrico, Chesterfield and the counties beyond are heavily Republican.

The 7th Congressional District of Virginia includes most of the area surrounding Richmond, but the black precincts in the city and Henrico County are mostly in the black-majority 3d District, which extends downriver along the James to Newport News and Norfolk. The district also extends past James Madison's home at Montpelier to fast-growing Spotsylvania and Culpeper Counties and as far north as Rappahannock County and the Blue Ridge Mountains. But 80% of the 7th's votes are cast in metro Richmond. This is one of the two most Republican districts in Virginia.

The congressman from the 7th District is Eric Cantor, a Republican first elected in 2000 and rapidly gaining influence in the House. He grew up in Henrico County, graduated from George Washington University and William and Mary law school and got a master's degree in real estate from Columbia University. He then began practicing law in his family's real-estate firm in Richmond. In 1991, he was elected to the first of five terms in Virginia's House of Delegates. In the legislature, he was a leading ally of business, sponsoring a bill to limit the liability of Philip Morris in a Florida court decree and opposing restrictions on telemarketers. When Congressman Tom Bliley announced his retirement in 2000, after six years as chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Cantor entered the race. He had served as Bliley's campaign chairman for six years and had the backing of Bliley's political organization. He endorsed a $1,000 per child education tax credit, elimination of the marriage tax penalty, and an increase in the maximum IRA contribution. He faced a serious contest in the Republican primary from state Senator Stephen Martin, who emphasized his low-income background and had a solid base of social and religious conservatives. Their contest turned negative: Cantor attacked Martin for supporting a back-door pay raise for legislators; Martin questioned Cantor's business dealings. Cantor, who was well known in his Henrico County base, put on a substantial advertising campaign. Martin raised less than $200,000--a quarter of what Cantor spent in the primary. Cantor won the primary by only 263 votes. He got 74% of the vote in Henrico, while Martin got 77% in his Chesterfield County base. In the general election, Cantor won 67%-33%.

In the House, Cantor has been reliably conservative in the Richmond tradition. His first bill provided a tax credit of $1,000 per child for all parents with school-age children in public or private schools until they graduate from high school. With his knowledge of the Middle East and his strong support for Israel, Cantor, the only Jewish Republican in the House, chaired the Republican task force on terrorism and unconventional warfare; he praises George W. Bush as more committed to Israel than any other president. But his more significant activity was outside the public spotlight as a member of Tom DeLay's Whip team. His efforts to assure support for Republican initiatives impressed House leaders and led to a meteoric rise to leadership. In December 2002, incoming Majority Whip Roy Blunt unexpectedly named Cantor as his chief deputy whip, giving him a seat at the party's leadership table and handing him the often thankless task of tracking his colleagues' sentiments on pending legislation. As a party leader, he expanded his contacts with national Jewish groups and sought opportunities to draw favorable partisan comparisons for Republicans. Cantor also won a seat on the Ways and Means Committee, where he was a booster of the Medicare/prescription drug bill and health savings accounts.

Cantor was reelected in 2002 against Ben Jones, who served two terms in the House from Georgia before he lost a 1992 Democratic primary, but who remains better known for his "Cooter" character in The Dukes of Hazzard. Jones settled in Rappahannock County, where he opened two stores capitalizing on Cooter's popularity and joined a successful band. But Jones got little national Democratic support; Cantor mostly ignored him and won 69%-30%. The Times-Dispatch editorialized that Cantor's win showed he had become "indispensable" in Washington, as well as secure at home. His strong attacks on Democratic leaders in the 2004 campaign led the state Democratic chairman to call him "a Bush attack dog". He is among several Republicans mentioned as a possible contender if a Senate seat becomes open.

Committees

• Chief Deputy Majority Whip
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• Ways & Means (19th of 24 R): Oversight; Select Revenue Measures.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	0	0	0	0	100	69	100	100	89	92	--
2003	5	--	0	0	--	64	100	92	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	0%	--	91%		5%	--	93%
Social	5%	--	87%		20%	--	77%
Foreign	11%	--	80%		0%	--	96%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR Y 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill Y 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. DC School Vouchers Y 6. Ban Human Cloning Y		7. Restrict Gun Liability Y  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage Y 10. Fund Iraq War Y 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds N 12. Intelligence Reorg. Y

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Eric Cantor (R)	230,765	75%	$2,193,388
	W. Brad Blanton (I)	74,325	24%
2004 primary	Eric Cantor (R)	unopposed
2002 general	Eric Cantor (R)	113,658	69%	$1,402,415
	Ben "Cooter" Jones (D)	49,854	30%	$166,332
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (67%)

2004 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 204,273 (61%) Kerry (D) 128,166 (38%)

2000 Presidential Vote Bush (R) 172,425 (61%) Gore (D) 105,504 (37%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Seventh District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: R +11
• District Size: 3,556 square miles
• Population in 2000: 643,499; 70.0% urban; 30.0% rural
• Median Household Income: $50,990; 6.1% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 19.4% blue collar; 68.4% white collar; 12.2% gray collar; 13.5% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 78.2% White, 16.1% Black, 2.3% Asian, 0.3% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.1% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 2.0% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 12.1% English, 10.6% USA, 10.2% German
• Click here for statewide demographic data.