In the New York Times, Jonathan Martin calls David Brat’s defeat of House majority leader Eric Cantor in a Republican primary “one of the most stunning primary election upsets in congressional history.”

So it is—perhaps the most stunning upset since in congressional history since an underfunded and little known challenger, Jeff Bell, defeated a 24-year incumbent, Clifford Case, in the 1978 New Jersey GOP Senate primary. Like Brat, Bell focused on one issue to oust the incumbent. In Bell’s case, it was supply-side tax cuts. In Brat’s case, the issue was immigration. But like Brat, Bell used his main issue as a kind of example and pivot point for the need for a broader change in orientation by the Republican party.