Ten years on, the tea party class of senators anointed to lead the Republican Party into a glorious future of free markets and small government has splintered. The populist movement led by President Trump has pushed aside traditional conservatism and become the driving force inside the GOP.
These half dozen Republicans were elected in a midterm backlash against Democratic President Barack Obama and the GOP establishment in Washington. Broadly, voters revolted against the Affordable Care Act, still referred to as Obamacare, which substantially increased government control of American healthcare. In Republican primaries, voters sided with insurgents who promised to return the party to its conservative roots, spurning the more pragmatic, and seemingly more electable, contenders backed by GOP leaders.
