The modern “Tea Party” was actually started by pro-amnesty groups — whether you credit Ron Paul’s or Koch bros’ groups. Social conservatism was not the priority.
The TEA Party was not started by libertarians, they simply tried to hijack it
Wrong! Tea Party’s foremost objective is a smaller government and reducing spending and paying off national debt. Nothing to do directly with immigration laws or abortion laws.
I went to a ragtag, impromptu “tea party” gathering, funded by no one, in my community one Saturday morning, at the VERY beginning of the movement. The very, very beginning. It was here in Texas, and a very MAJOR part of the whole thing was against amnesty and strengthening the borders.
Admittedly, there are a lot of regional differences between these kind of homegrown tea-party groups. Some in the South had a strong social-conservative undercurrent, and some in the West were more libertarian. It makes these discussions about people and their local tea-party histories and their emphases vary a lot. Shades of “Rashomon” every time it’s brought up.
And that was and still is a serious shortcoming. It's not quite yet too late to remedy.