People might have voted for Brat because they were sick of Cantor ads and never wanted to see them again.

I think it has to do with his being Jewish. Just a gut feeling.

Seems to be an issue with a number of people.

Just when they thought they'd watered it down...
the tea party rips a huge unpredictable hole in the GOP.
I love it! (although, I'm not looking forward to this new guy being in congress, I sure hope he can be beat).

Brat is worse

In Virginia, we do not register a party affiliation when we register to vote. At primary time, we can vote for whomever we like but we can only vote once. Since the last minute Democratic candidate was running unopposed, why not go down to the polls and vote for Brat if you are a Democrat. I sure as hell would have done it.

Another fact that suggests that Democrats put Brat over the top was that moderate areas of the very gerrymandered 7th district where Cantor should have received more votes than Brat voted heavily for Brat--Democrats, I suggest, provided the unexpected results.

Finally, the polls before the election had Cantor winning. Having done 1000s of hours of telephoning to get out the vote and to supply information in Virginia elections, we call likely Democrats and likely Democratic voters when we call for the Democratic candidate before an election. The Republicans do the same. We do not want to alert the other side to the upcoming election (we do our best to determine who is more likely to vote one way or another from contribution in formation, from those who volunteer, canvassing, etc. Since we do not associate with a party when we register in Virginia, determining party affiliations does take a lot of time and effort.

Frankly, it all points to a cross overvote by Democrats to send a "Screw You!" to Cantor and the Republicans.