Morning Digest: Is Debbie Wasserman Schultz the next Eric Cantor? The odds are long

Leading Off:

● FL-23: Members of Congress often receive primary challenges from unheralded opponents, and almost as often, they go nowhere. But once in a great while, a Some Dude manages the incredibly unlikely feat of knocking off an incumbent, like when college professor Dave Brat stunned House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014—an upset that every little-known first-time candidate dreams of repeating.

That's the same dream that another university professor—this time a Democrat, Tim Canova—is busy chasing. Canova recently launched a challenge to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who's best known as chair of the Democratic National Committee. Yet despite holding a post whose chief goal is to bring the party together, Wasserman Schultz has done a terrific job of alienating a whole lot of people, even Barack Obama, the man who appointed her to the position in the first place.

Wasserman Schultz has also infuriated progressives. Even though she's the titular head of the party, she's dissented from the right on many occasions. She's supported fast-track trade negotiation authority, opposed medical marijuana, and dragged her heels on the Iran nuclear deal (though she ultimately got behind it late in the game). And notoriously, when she ran the DCCC's "Red to Blue" program in 2008, she refused to help a trio of South Florida Democrats running against incumbent Republicans—because those Republicans were her friends.