Here is CNN’s snap analysis of how the Tea Partiers did in the House:
- AZ-08 Jesse Kelly – lost
- DE-AL Glen Urquhart – lost
- FL-02 Steve Southerland – won
- FL-22 Allen West – won
- ID-01 Raul Labrador – won
- IL-11 Adam Kinzinger – won
- IL-14 Randy Hultgren – won
- IN-02 Jackie Walorski – lost
- KY-03 Todd Lally – lost
- LA-03 Jeff Landry – won
- MA-10 Jeff Perry – lost
- MI-01 Dan Benishek – won
- MI-07 Tim Walberg – won
- MI-09 Rocky Raczkowski – lost
- MO-04 Vicky Hartzler – won
- NY-25 Ann Marie Buerkle – TBA
- NC-02 Renee Ellmers – won
- PA-04 Keith Rothfus – lost
- PA-07 Pat Meehan – won
- PA-12 Tim Burns – lost
- VA-11 Keith Fimian – lost
From what I can tell, all of these candidates are conservatives, but I don’t think they are all properly understood as “Tea Party” candidates. Jackie Walorski, for example, may be a real ideological conservative, but she was also the clear establishment favorite in her primary — it would be misleading to conclude anything about the Tea Party from her defeat.
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Tim Burns was actually chosen this spring in a convention by party insiders after Rep. Jack Murtha, D, passed away. Keith Rothfus is a former Bush administration official who won his primary (over another former Bush administration official) with the blessing of former Republican Rep. Melissa Hart. Tim Walberg is a former congressman. Keith Fimian and Allen West are repeat nominees from 2008.
More importantly, here are a few names that clearly should be on this list but aren’t: Reps.-elect Justin Amash (MI-03), Frank Guinta (NH-01), Bobbie Schilling (IL-17), Joe Walsh (IL-08), Blake Farenthold (TX-27), Trey Gowdy (SC-04), and Reid Ribble (WI-08). There may be others, but one would be mistaken to underestimate the energy and the re-branding (away from the Bush label) that Tea Partiers brought to the GOP this year.
