Purging the Republican Party: Tea Party Campaigns and Elections

Ronald T. Libby

nov 2013 · Lexington Books

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This is the first book that explains the Tea Party’s successful “primary” campaign against Republicans in Name Only (RINOs). Grassroots Tea Party activists adopted this strategy in 2009 shortly after the movement emerged. The first successful campaign occurred in upstate New York where the Tea Party defeated Dede Scozzafava, a RINO running for congress in a Republican primary that only elected Republicans to office during the previous 100 years. Armed with success, they defeated “conservative” Utah Senator Bob Bennett an eighteen-year veteran and then proceeded to defeat the popular Republican (RINO) governor of Florida Charlie Crist and elected the virtually unknown Tea Party candidate, Marco Rubio. This placed all Republicans on notice that if they do not follow conservative fiscal policies, they could be “primaried.” The Tea Party’s goal is to take control of the Republican Party and return it to its original, fiscal conservatism.

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Ronald T. Libby is professor of political science and public administration at University of North Florida. He is the author of The Criminalization of Medicine: America’s War on Doctors and Eco-Wars: Political Campaigns and Social Movements.