ROLL CALL: Tea Party Victory Scuttled Immigration Deal:

They were two days away.

Reps. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., had a July 12, 2014, meeting scheduled with Speaker John A. Boehner to present the Ohio Republican with their immigration reform bill, complete with a whip count, that was ready for introduction.

But on July 10, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., lost his primary to Dave Brat, who ran on a hard-right immigration platform, and the migrant children crisis on the Southwest border peaked. After that, “the whip count commitments evaporated,” according to “Immigration Battle,” a new documentary by Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini.

This is why primary challenges matter.