With just weeks until the elections, the Tea Party has proven that it is more than just a passing fad. There are over 70 Tea Party candidates on ballots around the nation, and most of them in hotly contested races to the finish line.
These candidates mostly consist of Republicans and have emerged to capture a record number of nominations with the support of the Tea Party – a loosely organized group of ‘activist’ who are up in arms about the current administration.
The Tea Party is by no means a coherent, streamlined organization. In some states, its members are first-time politicos, with little chance of winning on November 2. In other states, the Tea Party groups there chose not to participate in the running, and not to back any candidate: not a homogenous group by any stretch of the mile.
But where some are floundering, others are firing. Around 35 nominees with Tea Party backgrounds are locked in fierce competition with their rival nominees, many in races so close, it’s hard to call.
Republican candidates with ties to the Tea Party are tipped to win in South Carolina and Indiana, while three Tea Party candidates are battling it out in Michigan.
The prospect of a large number of Tea Party affiliates winning in the upcoming elections has stirred nervous debate in many circles, and both political parties are anxious.
Jim Bennett, son of Tea Part-deposed Utah
senator Bob Bennett has said of the movement: "I've decided the Republican
Party in Utah doesn't exist anymore — it's the tea party and the
Democrats," and that the Tea Party is all about wanting "to burn down
anything that had anything to do with Washington."
