Skip to footer

Six US Senate races where the tea party counts

After playing kingmaker in the 2010 election cycle, the tea party movement is having a less prominent role in 2012. But its support or opposition could swing some key races and even determine whether Republicans win control of the Senate. Here are six US Senate contests where the tea party could make a difference.

4. Texas: Tea party star upends GOP establishment rival

Johnny Hanson/AP/Houston Chronicle
Holding his daughter Caroline, GOP Senate candidate Ted Cruz and his wife, Heidi, holding their daughter, Catherine, appear before a cheerful crowd in Houston after Cruz defeated his GOP rival, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, in a runoff election on Tuesday.

In a stunning upset, Ted Cruz – son of a Cuban immigrant, Harvard Law School graduate, and former Texas solicitor general – blew past the Republican establishment candidate, Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, in the GOP primary runoff on July 31, winning by more than 13 percentage points, 56.3 to 43.2 percent. 

Mr. Cruz is a darling of the tea party movement, both for his life story and his passion for limits on government. He’s also quotable, whether defending constitutional points before the Texas Supreme Court or railing against “timid career politicians” on the stump.

National tea party groups rallied behind Cruz even before incumbent Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) opted not to defend her seat. Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks for America, called the Cruz victory, "the latest step in the American people's hostile takeover of Washington." Tea party Sens. Jim DeMint (R) of South Carolina, Rand Paul (R) of Kentucky, and Mike Lee (R) of Utah stumped for Cruz, as did 2008 vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin and former GOP presidential contender Rick Santorum.

Cruz now faces Democrat Paul Sadler, a former state representative who has had only token support from the national Democratic Party. Should Cruz win, he becomes the first Hispanic US senator in Texas history. Cruz's victory also marks the first tea party breakthrough in a big, high-population state. Previous signature tea party wins have come in states like Delaware, Alaska, and Nevada.

4 of 6
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.