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The month of May will go a long way toward answering one of the overriding questions of Election 2014: Can the Republican establishment finally tame the tea party and retake the Senate?

A month-long series of primaries, stretching across 10 states from the Deep South to the Pacific Northwest, is the first major electoral clash between the GOPs two wings since 2012. It kicks off Tuesday in North Carolina, where the party establishment has lined up behind state House Speaker Thom Tillis against a tea party-aligned foe, Greg Brannon, and another contender who has galvanized the Christian right, Mark Harris.

Republicans in Washington have been pushed around by grass-roots activists for two straight elections. The infighting helped produce poor nominees and cost the party control of the Senate, as some tea party-backed candidates couldnt win general elections and other establishment-backed contenders floundered.

(PHOTOS: Senators up for election in 2014)

If you nominate the wrong candidate, as we have been prone to do sometimes, it diminishes your chances in the general election, said Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), whose announced retirement triggered a crowded May 20 primary race for his seat. (He is staying neutral in the fight.) It makes it more of an uphill battle if you have a candidate who is not appealing across the board.

This year, the national party has shifted tactics. The GOPs Senate campaign committee has aggressively courted critics on the right while other establishment-aligned groups have sought to prop up their preferred candidates. Republican officials have trained candidates of all stripes, even putting them through campaign schools to gird them for the stresses of the trail. And national party officials have stood up to outside groups targeting sitting GOP senators, at times suggesting theyre more interested in raising money from activists than helping the broader partys cause.

The primaries over the next several weeks will provide the first solid clues whether the approach is working or the GOP is in for more of the same.

(On the Ground: How Lindsey Graham outmaneuvered the tea party)

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who ran the NRSC in 2010 and 2012, said the past two elections have been a learning experience for all of us. The tea party, he said, was the wind at our backs in 2010, helping the party pick up seven seats that year, even though it left several potential wins on the table.

Then we got divisions within the Republican Party that produced candidates who could get nominated but who couldnt get elected in the general election, Cornyn said. And thats obviously not the goal.

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May primaries to test GOP establishment clout