David Alan Brat (born July 27, 1964) is an American politician and academic. A member of the Republican Party, Brat served as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 7th congressional district from 2014 to 2019.
Brat came to national prominence when he defeated the U.S. House Majority Leader, Eric Cantor, in the 2014 Republican primary in Virginia's 7th congressional district. His primary victory, which he achieved with the support of the Tea Party movement, made Brat the first primary challenger to oust a sitting House Majority Leader since the position's creation in 1899. Brat went on to win the 2014 general election and was re-elected to Congress in 2016. During his congressional tenure, Brat was known as a conservative Republican and a member of the Freedom Caucus. He was defeated by Democrat Abigail Spanberger in the 2018 election.
In January 2019, Brat was named dean of the Liberty University School of Business.
Early life and education
David Alan Brat was born in Detroit, Michigan, on July 27, 1964. His father, Paul, was a doctor of internal medicine; his mother, Nancy, was employed as a social worker in Alma, Michigan, where he was raised. His family moved from Alma to Minnesota when David, the oldest of three boys, was in junior high. Brat graduated from Park Center Senior High School in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
Brat earned a B.A. in business administration from Hope College in 1986, a master's degree in divinity (M.Div.) from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1990 and a Ph.D. in economics from American University in 1995.
Academic career
After working for Arthur Andersen and as a consultant for the World Bank, Brat joined the faculty of Randolph–Macon College in 1996 as an economics professor. For six years, Brat chaired the College's department of ethics and business. At Randolph-Macon, Brat taught courses including "Britain in the International Economy", "International Economic Development", and "Business Ethics".
From 2010 to 2012, Brat headed Randolph-Macon's BB&T Moral Foundations of Capitalism program. Endowed by the BB&T Corporation, the program was one of 60 similar programs devoted to the study of capitalism and morality in philosophy and economics departments at U.S. universities.
In 2006, Brat was appointed by Virginia governor Tim Kaine to the Governor's Advisory Board of Economists. He has also served on the board of directors of the Richmond Metropolitan Authority, and on the advisory board of the Virginia Public Access Project.
In January 2019, following his defeat in the 2018 congressional election, Brat was named dean of the Liberty University School of Business. In May 2023, Brat became Vice Provost for Engagement and Public Relations at Liberty.
Scholarship and ideas
Brat has asserted that culture matters in economic markets. He believes that the culture that produced Adam Smith was a Protestant culture, and that the ethics of that culture are important in understanding market efficiency. Brat has advocated that Christians should forcefully support free-market capitalism and behave altruistically, in the manner of Jesus, so that "we would not need the government to backstop every action we take".
According to Kevin Roose in a New York Magazine article, Brat "sees free-market economics as being intricately linked to ethics and faith", and he makes the case that Adam Smith's "'invisible hand' theory should be properly seen in the context of Christian moral philosophy". Furthering the central theme of Max Weber's seminal book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Brat argues in his 2004 paper Economic Growth and Institutions: The Rise and Fall of the Protestant Ethic? that "institutions such as religion, democracy and government anti-diversion policies all significantly enhance a country's long-run economic performance", and concludes that "the religion variable may be the strongest ex ante, exogenous institutional variable in the literature".
In a paper entitled Is Growth Exogenous? Taking Bernanke Seriously, Brat criticized Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. Brat asserted that Bernanke's work on economic growth overlooks the role of religious institutions—especially Protestant religious institutions—in a country's economic growth. Brat added that while savings rates, population growth, and human capital accumulation help drive economic growth, the larger factor is "the Protestant religious establishment", which Bernanke ignores.