Tea Party returns to more solid ground, midterm challenges to Democrats and Republicans

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Fox News:

The Tea Party is getting back on more solid ground -- midterm elections where in 2010 the fledgling, grassroots movement unseated so-called “Washington insiders” and helped Republicans win control of the House.

 

The loosely-knit coalition of groups has already targeted some of the Republican Party’s most established candidates, accusing them of compromising their conservative principles in negotiating with Democrats.

 

The Tea Party Express even boasted this winter that promising to mount a primary challenge against Georgia Republican Rep. Saxby Chambliss forced him to retire instead of seeking a third term.

 

“Lest anyone think this decision is about a primary challenge, I have no doubt that had I decided to be a candidate, I would have won re-election,” responded Chambliss, who was part of a bipartisan Senate group that tried to reduce the national debt.

 

One of the most recent, high-profile Tea Party challenges is in South Carolina, where Nancy Mace, the first female graduate of The Citadel, is trying to unseat two-term Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, whose efforts to pass immigration-reform legislation appears most upsetting to the movement.

 

Graham also frustrated conservatives so much this spring when criticizing fellow Republican and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul for filibustering over the Obama administration’s drone strikes that FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe said Graham was “begging for a primary.”

 

Graham is also facing a primary challenge from Christian conservative lawyer Richard Cash and more recently from Libertarian-minded state Sen. Lee Bright, who plans to make an official announcement within weeks.

 

The Tea Party Express recently announced it plans to target 25 House races and seven to 10 Senate races, mostly with Democratic incumbents, including Sens. Al Fraken in Minnesota and Mark Udall in Colorado.

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Will challenges work this time around?