Eric Cantor loses Virginia Republican Party primary
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor was viewed as a potential successor to House Speaker John Boehner
US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor has lost a Virginia Republican Party primary election to a challenger from the hard-right Tea Party movement.
Little-known economics professor David Brat defeated the second-ranking House of Representatives member 56%-44%.
Mr Brat's shock victory exposed conservative dissatisfaction with Mr Cantor, who was first elected in 2000.
Mr Cantor had been widely favoured to win, having raised significantly more money than Mr Brat.
Mr Brat's victory has exposed conservative dissatisfaction with Mr Cantor
But Mr Brat attacked Mr Cantor's record, including his support for some immigration reforms, and rallied enthusiastic members of the anti-tax, conservative populist Tea Party movement in the low-turnout race.
Analysis by Mark Mardell, BBC News, Washington
The defeat of the second-most-important Republican in the House at their hands is being variously described as an "apocalyptic moment" and "an earthquake".
I am not sure the Earth has moved for me, but it will make senior Republicans worry they are still on shaky ground.
The victory of the apparently underfunded and little known Prof David Brat will send a message.
The truth is the Tea Party are a force to be reckoned with still.
They've pushed their party to the right, dominated its council for years, and they won't go away after the mid-terms in November.
In a forewarning of trouble, last month Mr Cantor was booed at a meeting of Republican activists after a local party chairman whom he supported was removed in favour of a Tea Party candidate.
A lawyer, Mr Cantor, 51, was first elected to Congress in 2000 after serving nine years in the Virginia House of Delegates.
After the Tea Party emerged in 2009, he forged ties with the loose-knit movement, drawing on its support to help the Republicans take control of the House of Representatives the following year.
Mr Cantor was seen as representing a more conservative counterweight to House Speaker John Boehner, seen by some in the Tea Party as too conciliatory to Democratic President Barack Obama.
He was even viewed by some as possible successor to Mr Boehner.
Mr Brat will now face Democratic nominee Jack Trammell - also a professor at Randolph-Macon College - in this fall's general election.
Primary elections were staged in five states. In other results:
- US Senator Lindsey Graham defeated six challengers from the Tea Party to win South Carolina's Republican primary, avoiding a runoff vote
- Incumbent South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the chamber, won his primary with more than 90 percent of the vote
- Tea Party favourite Bruce Poliquin beat Kevin Raye in the Republican primary in Maine's northern rural district. Emily Cain won the Democrat nomination
- Brian Sandoval beat off four challengers to take Nevada's Republican primary for governor.
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