Earlier that day, Mario Díaz-Balart, a Florida Republican involved in House immigration talks, had told Boehner that 140 members—a decisive majority of Republicans—now supported a version of the bill. Díaz-Balart and his staff were celebrating at his apartment when they learned about Cantor. “We lost the whole thing,” Díaz-Balart told a Democratic counterpart, according to The New York Times. “It’s over.” Cantor’s defeat confirmed the vulnerability of any Republican who refused to toe the populist line.
