Tea Party Hangs On With Sasse Nebraska Senate Primary Win
The Tea Party scored a victory in Nebraskas Republican U.S. Senate primary, a win that groups tied to the limited-government movement are banking will boost momentum heading into the heart of the 2014 nomination calendar.
Ben Sasse, last nights winner, was backed by such Tea Party leaders as U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. National groups aligned with the movement also endorsed him in the race to fill the seat of retiring Senator Mike Johanns, a Republican.
Nebraskas primary, as well as one held yesterday in West Virginia, will be followed by others on May 20 and June 3 that will draw more national attention and carry greater consequence.
Those contests in Kentucky, Idaho, Georgia and Mississippi will reveal how much of a threat Tea Party candidates pose to traditional Republicans trying to win control of the U.S. Senate in Novembers election.
The partys national leaders are seeking to avoid the selection of untested, Tea Party-aligned candidates who could hurt their chances to win the chamber, as happened in the 2010 and 2012 elections. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to oust the Democratic majority in the Senate.
In 2012, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, a six-term Republican, lost in a primary to a Tea Party-backed candidate, who was then defeated in the general election by Democrat Joe Donnelly. Two years earlier, then-U.S. Representative Mike Castle of Delaware was beaten in a Republican Senate primary by Christine ODonnell, a Tea Party favorite who during the general election campaign was forced to deny she was a witch. She lost to a Democrat.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington rates Nebraska as solid Republican in this years election, so Sasse is likely to prevail in November. Lawyer Dave Domina, 63, won the Democratic primary for the seat in a state where President Barack Obama took just 38 percent of the 2012 vote.
Sasse, 42, a former assistant secretary of health and human services in George W. Bushs administration who now serves as president of Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska, is younger than all 45 current Senate Republicans. He represented one of the best opportunities for the Tea Party to claim a win in a contested Senate primary this year.
Republican incumbents have had plenty of intraparty challengers this year, although most of the Tea Party-aligned candidates in those races have failed to spark the kind of electoral excitement their predecessors did in 2010 and 2012.
Jenny Beth Martin, the national coordinator of the Tea Party Patriots, a group based in the Atlanta area, pointed to other senators tied to the movement such as Cruz and Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky as she celebrated Sasses win.
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Tea Party Hangs On With Sasse Nebraska Senate Primary Win