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BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — After running for months against the Washington ruling establishment, a host of Tea Party-backed candidates won election yesterday and promptly faced the challenge of transitioning from a boisterous political campaign to finding common ground in Congress to deal with a massive debt they vowed to control.
The string of Tea Party victories began here in Kentucky, where Republican Rand Paul handily defeated his Democratic opponent, Jack Conway. That was followed by other Tea Party successes, including the election of Marco Rubio of Florida, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin to the US Senate.
But the movement also faced some setbacks.
In Nevada, the most powerful sitting US senator, majority leader Harry Reid, successfully defended his seat against the Tea Party-fueled candidacy of former state legislator Sharron Angle.
Democrat Christopher Coons beat Republican Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, and Democrat Joe Manchin topped Republican John Raese in West Virginia.
Tea Party backers, however, held on to hope in Colorado and Alaska.
Paul, speaking to supporters last night, vowed to carry his message of fiscal restraint to Washington. “We are in the midst of a debt crisis, and the American people want to know why we have to balance our budget and they don’t,’’ he said.
Starting today, the Tea Party movement must find a way to work with the Republican Party establishment, which at first battled against the uprising and eventually embraced it after the upstart candidates began defeating GOP favorites in the primaries. Now a new battle could take place in Congress, where the Tea Party-backed members will caucus with entrenched GOP leaders.
“That’s when the fun’s really going to start,’’ said David Damore, a University of Nevada at Las Vegas political-science professor. The GOP will expect Tea Party candidates elected to Congress to support Republican leaders, such as GOP House leader John Boehner of Ohio and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
“The million dollar question: How do [Republicans] harness this without creating this fissure in their party?’’ said Damore.
Many Tea Party activists are skeptical of both parties. They criticize former president George W. Bush for deficit spending as easily as they do President Obama and express intolerance for traditional legislative compromise and dealmaking.
Tea Party candidates have been mocked at times, such as after Paul stumbled through an interview on MSNBC and appeared to say he was against the Civil Rights Act, a view he soon backed away from.
Tea Party organizers are not worried about how their candidates will fit in when they get to Washington.
“We hope they don’t fit in,’’ said Tim Denton, 53, an organizer of the Bowling Green Tea Party. “The whole problem is people [in Congress] going with the flow and not listening to us.’’
What remains to be seen is whether the Tea Party movement will retain momentum beyond the 2010 midterm elections and will play a role in choosing the Republican presidential candidate in 2012.
In Bowling Green yesterday, Tea Party organizers and supporters anticipated the election of Paul, whose strong antispending and libertarian views have made him a hero of the movement.
“I feel like we’re about to have Christmas morning,’’ said Mary Jo Leake, an organizer of the Southern Kentucky Bowling Green Tea Party, hours before the votes were counted.
“It’s like the deliverance,’’ added her husband, Wesley, another Tea Party organizer. “We’ll have a better, stronger country because of the efforts of a lot of grass-roots people. They’ve been called radicals, called every name in the book, but they’re all just regular people, like us.’’
The Bowling Green Presbyterian Church, where Paul is a member, was bustling with the local Lions Club’s cornbread and bean charity event, an Election Day tradition.
“We need to get some new faces in there,’’ said Garry Comer, a 64-year-old Vietnam veteran. Comer said he supported Paul and the Tea Party in part because of his uncertainty about how health care reform will affect him. He is also worried about spending, and blames both parties for the federal deficit.
“I’m hoping some of these Tea Party people make it in there’’ to Congress, “to help the Republicans see that their way was the wrong way, too.’’
The Tea Party movement grew out of a general frustration with the size and reach of the federal government, particularly with the bailout of Wall Street financial firms under President Bush, and the federal stimulus program and health care reform law under President Obama. The movement scored its first major electoral victory last January, helping Republican Scott Brown of Massachusetts win a special election for the US Senate seat held for nearly 50 years by liberal icon Edward M. Kennedy.
A disparate group of Tea Party organizers created local groups around the country. They backed primary challenges to established Republicans considered to be too moderate. Tea Party-backed candidates defeated Republican senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bob Bennett of Utah, though Murkowski made a bid to keep her seat as a write-in candidate.
But in challenging the GOP establishment, the Tea Party was also criticized by some GOP activists for knocking out moderate Republicans who might have a better chance to win. In Delaware, Tea Party favorite O’Donnell defeated US Representative Mike Castle in the Republican primary. Polls suggested the centrist Castle probably would have been the stronger candidate against the Democrat, Coons, who beat O’Donnell yesterday.
In Las Vegas, Cheryl Wayne was among those who cast their ballot for Angle. “It’s getting new management in charge of a failing company, new ideas,’’ the 47-year-old said.
An independent, Wayne has lived in Las Vegas for 17 years and raised two children here. “I think people are just angry enough. They know they need to get involved if they want to change things,’’ she said.
Reid spent millions of dollars to paint Angle as too extreme. At Halle Hewetson Elementary School, Norma Flores cast her ballot early yesterday for Reid. “He’s the best friend Latinos have,’’ she said. “And besides, we don’t like [Angle’s] thinking.’’
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