Establishment candidates like State
Representative Dan Branch and State Senator Bob Deuell faded quietly in defeat
while strongly supported Tea Party candidates like Sen. Dan Patrick, Sen. Ken
Paxton, and former State Rep. Sid Miller sailed to easy victories in their
statewide races.
The trend of Tea Party victories continued
down the ballot as well. In Senate District 10 (currently held by Sen. Wendy
Davis), Tea Party favorite Konni Burton won her race with a 20 point margin
over the more moderate Mark Shelton. In a report by Merrill Hope,
Burton told Breitbart Texas, “We are so excited. We’ve been working for
this for a year. Our message has resonated with the voters and we
couldn’t be more pleased.” Burton was also supported by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz
who, in 2012, proved the Tea Party and grassroots activism can overcome
insurmountable odds to bring victory for conservative principles.
In spite of viscous attacks from his moderate
opponent, Tea Party faithful’s stood strong beside Sen. Ken Paxton and delivered
a victory that was never in doubt after early voting numbers showed a Paxton
lead of 24 percent. Throughout the night, the numbers increased and Paxton won
the nomination for Texas Attorney General with a 27 point margin of victory
over Dan Branch.
And, of course, Sen. Dan Patrick’s victory in
the race for Lt. Governor over David Dewhurst with a margin of 30 percent sent
yet another strong statement of Tea Party strength. Rice University political
scientist Mark Jones told the Austin American-Statesman,
“Patrick’s win signals an important shift to the right within the Texas GOP,
both electorally and legislatively. The Texas Senate under Patrick’s leadership
will be a much more partisan and conservative institution than it has been during
the past 12 years under Dewhurst.” Patrick reiterated his pledge to not appoint
Democrats to half of the senate committee chairmanships during his victory
speech in Houston on election night.
The Tea Party movement did not just strike
state level races. In the race for U.S. Congressional District 4, the nation’s
most senior Member of Congress, 91-year-old, 18-term Ralph Hall was defeated by
John Ratcliffe a former U.S. Attorney. According to an email received by
Breitbart Texas from Texas Election Source, Publisher Jeff Blaylock, Hall is
the first incumbent Congressman to be defeated in a runoff election since 1996
when Ron Paul defeated Congressman Greg Laughlin.
The national news media has expressed a
fascination with the Tea Party’s impact in Texas politics.
An article by Reuters writer Marice Richter states, “The Tea Party
win over established politicians boosts the stature of U.S. Senator Cruz, a
possible 2016 Republican presidential contender, and returns some luster to the
Tea Party movement after several candidates were defeated by mainstream
Republicans in primaries in other states last week.”
International Business Times cited another
Reuters article which quotes Republican strategist Bill Miller
saying, “I do think the Republican Party could be eclipsed by the Tea Party
here.”
Not all Republicans think this shift is a good
thing. Bill Hammond, a Republican who heads up the powerful Texas Association
of Business told Fox News Latino, You’ve seen some very solid
conservative candidates defeated in the Texas Republican primary,
unfortunately,” Hammond said. “It’s absolutely a concern more and more for us.”
Also, the Tea Party endorsement is not an
automatic checkmark in the victory column. The Tea Party coattails could not
extend far enough down the ballot to help Railroad Commission candidate, former
State Rep. Wayne Christian, overcome the energy industry business experience
and qualifications of Houston area businessman and engineer Ryan Sitton. Sitton
won his race over Christian by a margin of 57 to 43 percent.
The Blaylock Texas Election Source email
quoted above states that Sitton now holds the record for the biggest
non-judicial race come-from-behind runoff victory having come from 12 points
behind after the primary to 14 points ahead after the runoff. The previous
record was held by Tea Party favorite Texas Cruz who trailed Dewhurst by 10.5
percent after the first round and won the runoff by 13.6 percent.
In one of the narrower Tea Party victories,
State Senator Bob Deuell was defeated by the Tea Party supported candidate Bob
Hall by 300 votes. Breitbart Texas reported Sen. Deuell’s alleged attempt to
censor Texas Right to Life by threatening radio stations in an attempt to get
them to remove ads that spoke about his record on end of life issues. The ploy,
carried out a few days before the start of early voting nearly worked. But as
Breitbart Texas reported, the stations only held the add off the air for
thirty-six hours.
After some of the very negative ads that have
been run in the various statewide campaigns, traditional Republican groups and
Tea Party groups will need to find a way to mend fences in order to effectively
be able to challenge what will most likely be well organized and funded
campaigns by Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte.
Source:http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-Texas/2014/05/28/Tea-Party-Rides-to-Victory-in-Texas
Comments
Texas voters don’t seem intimidated by
federal bribes. Maybe Texas is wealthy enough to risk being on Obama’s “don’t
fund list”.
Georgia voters seem to know something is
wrong, but they don’t connect the dots. Too many would rather allow their
politicians to collect the federal bribes with strings attached. They don’t check how incumbents voted; they
believe what the incumbents say.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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