Break Out the Tea!

With Joe Miller's official win in the GOP primary in Alaska, the Tea Party movement can claim at least six chances to win a U.S. Senate seat in November.

Image: Illustration by Sean Driscoll

Tea Party backers are rejoicing today now that Senator Lisa Murkowski has conceded in the Republican primary race in Alaska. Joe Miller, a Tea Party-backed and Sarah Palin-endorsed candidate, will take on Democrat Scott McAdams in the fall.

Miller’s victory adds to the list of Tea Party success this year. Other like-minded candidates have prevailed in Senate GOP primaries in Nevada, Utah, Florida, Colorado, and Kentucky. Next up is a primary battle in Delaware, where Christine O’Donnell is challenging Mike Castle, a Republican who is the state's sole U.S. House member, on September 14.

In most election cycles, being an incumbent usually is a good thing. For Republican incumbents in the 2010 cycle—especially those who have shown some willingness to work with Democrats—it’s been something of a curse. Besides Murkowski’s defeat, Senator Robert Bennett fell in his reelection bid in Utah. One Democratic incumbent has also fallen, Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania, though his loss had nothing to do with the Tea Party and everything to do with Democratic distrust of the veteran senator who only recently jumped to the Democratic party.

So who are these upstarts of the Republican party, who appear to claim greater allegiance to the Tea Party than to the Grand Old Party? In general, they’re advocating for smaller government, less taxation, a reduced national debt, a rethinking of Social Security, an opposition to federal health care reform, and states rights. They don’t talk much about Iraq or Afghanistan, nor are they as vocal about social issues like abortion or same-sex marriage as some social conservatives would like them to be.

In other words, Tea Party members fit the general description of what we think of as old-school Republicans. Only they don’t like to be cast that way. In their eyes, Republicans already in Washington are part of the problem, so they’re more comfortable being seen as insurgents within the one party where they’ll have more pull.

But looking over the list of Tea Party-backed candidates for the U.S. Senate who will face off against Democrats in November, what’s striking is how conventional many of them actually look. Just like the current Congress, most are lawyers and some have established political careers. Business executives and entrepreneurs, they’re not:

• Joe Miller, Alaska: Miller went after Murkowski with gusto during the primary. The 43-year-old lawyer and former U.S. magistrate is a West Point graduate, veteran of the first Gulf War, and holder of an economics masters degree from the University of Alaska. He tried his hand at elective politics once before, when he ran unsuccessfully for the state House.
• Sharon Angle, Nevada: Every election has a potential giant killer, and Angle is this cycle’s prospect. She defeated an establishment GOP candidate for the right to challenge Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Angle, 61, spent six years in the Nevada state Assembly and has been a longtime substitute school teacher.
• Mike Lee, Utah: Lee didn’t knock off the incumbent, Bennett. That honor was left to the state Republican party, which failed to endorse him during their convention, essentially ending his run. Lee, 39, later won a primary against Tim Bridgewater to lay claim to the GOP nomination. Lee is a constitutional lawyer who has served stints as general counsel to Utah’s governor and as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.
• Marco Rubio, Florida: Rubio didn’t defeat an incumbent. No, he forced the favored Republican candidate—Governor Charlie Crist—out of the party entirely. Crist is now running as an independent in a three-way race. Rubio, 39, is a lawyer with a long political history. He was a member of the Florida House for nearly a decade and spent two years as House Speaker.
• Ken Buck, Colorado: Buck defeated Jane Norton, a former lieutenant governor in the August 10 primary. Buck is a lawyer who worked in Washington before as a prosecutor with the Justice Department. Most recently, he was district attorney of Weld County, Colorado. This November, Buck is trying to defeat incumbent Democratic Senator Michael Bennet.
• Rand Paul, Kentucky: Paul is an ophthalmologist who has never held political office. But he does come from a political family—his dad, Ron Paul, is a Republican congressman from Texas who ran for president in 2008—and he has been active in libertarian and tax-relief causes. Paul has stirred controversy with remarks suggesting that private business owners should be allowed to discriminate.

There’s no doubt that after the November elections, candidates with Tea Party credentials will win election to the Senate. The best chances for victory are in Alaska, Utah, Kentucky, and Colorado. Nevada and Florida are also definitely in play and could well get added to the Tea Party’s victory list.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified Mike Castle as an incumbent senator from Delaware. He is a sitting member of the U.S. House who is running for the Senate.