For all the talk about the death of the Tea Party, conservative insurgents have actually had a fairly impressive run in 2012 against establishment Republican Senate candidates. In Nebraska, Deb Fischer came out of nowhere to beat two Republicans who held statewide office. In Indiana, conservative Richard Mourdock sent moderate veteran senator Dick Lugar packing. And in Texas, Ted Cruz is surging in the run-off election against Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst. Could Clark Durant of Michigan be the next Tea Partier to take off?
With two weeks to go until Michigan’s GOP Senate primary, Durant is making an aggressive play to beat former Congressman Pete Hoekstra. One new TV ad hits Hoekstra for being a Washington politician who voted for the “Wall Street bailout”:
