Tea Party Express Turns Eyes to Senate

Roll Call ^ | December 17, 2011 | By Janie Lorber and Ambreen Ali

[SMGFan]

For the Tea Party Express, next year’s election is all about the Senate. With no consensus tea party presidential candidate in sight, the group plans to kick off the new year with a stream of endorsements in Senatorial races, Chairwoman Amy Kremer told Roll Call Friday. In September, the group co-sponsored a Republican presidential debate with CNN and its leaders expected to anoint one of the nominees as the candidate of the tea party shortly thereafter. But no single candidate managed to capture the imagination of grass-roots conservatives.

[SMGFan]

Lugar is stale, Snowe and others are Rino's , etc. Cannot have status quo in a 2013 GOP majority. No timid souls desired.

[onona]

Been muttering that to my self for going on 3 years...

[SoConPubbie]

This IS the firewall we should be building between ourselves as conservatives and whomever wins POTUS.

Enough principled Senators and congressmen/congresswomen and it won’t matter if Obama, or a moderate Republican is President.

Deadlock will ensue and give us time to actually work towards nominating an actual conservative.

[markomalley]

Getting a solidly conservative Congress is the most important thing we can do.

If the GOP establishment, in their well-established tradition of snatching defeat out of the mouth of victory, nominates Myth (and if he doesn’t pull a McLame and lose an easy victory), a SOLIDLY conservative Congress can minimize the damage he does to our country. The Senate is of critical importance due to their role in confirming SCOTUS nominees.

[ronnie raygun]

Nice to see ground game begining, your only as good as your team.

[cripplecreek]

In Michigan we have Pete Hoekstra who has probably the best chance of defeating Debbie Stabenow. He has some RINO tendencies but still remains well to the right guys like John McCain.

Clark Durant is also running as a tea partier but unfortunately I can’t make heads or tails of him.

[SMGFan]

In some of the states the primary is our only chance, but the big name radio conservatives just refrain from endorsing in primaries.

[ken5050]

The GOP will win the Senate next year..I suspect with about 55-57 seats, and we can get a filabuster -proof majority (60+) in 2014...Take a look at who's up then..it's even worse for the Dems than next year. But the new GOP caucus will be much more conservative....that's crucial.

Lugar is toast. Just wait until we get a decent poll from Indiana...

[SMGFan]

Indiana should shake the establishment like Paul in KY 2010 as well as Mike Lee in Utah ?