The biggest problem, I think, is the general inexperience of the TP candidates. Many want to go from never having held political office to being Senator, and while it can happen, it’s unusual and generally requires that they have achieved high visibility in something else first.
The other problem is the warring factions. Cochran was extremely weak and would have lost in the primary - if there had been only one TP candidate. But the whole reason for the run-off was that there were two or three TP candidates, and the vote was diluted. Then having the run-off gave Cochran and the incredibly corrupt Mississippi GOP the chance to come up with a strategy for crushing McDaniel.
Again, part of the reason there are so many candidates is inexperience, with candidates and their backers each insisting that their principles are more pure than the other and refusing to be realistic about their possibilities. And they’ve generally never had to try out those principles in a real situation of political responsibility.
Don’t forget that the “Tea Party” really doesn’t exist, and it’s just individual candidates who proclaim themselves as being conservative - but this does not provide the support or money of a party apparatus, which is what the regular GOP candidates have.
Spot on. The real problem tea party candidates face is their own constituency. You have to be blemish-free on conservative issues. Yet successful politics requires some compromise. Even Saint Ronald compromised to move the ball forward. So that means you get inexperienced candidates.