Tea Party History

The Tea Party Express launched the movement in 2009, but calling a conservative protest a tea party had been around for a while.

In September 2005, Birmingham, Al talk show hosts Russ and Dee Fine led a large scale "Tea Party" protest against illegal immigration in Birmingham, Alabama

On January 24, 2009, Trevor Leach, chairman of the Young Americans for Liberty in New York State organized a "Tea Party" to protest obesity taxes proposed by New York Governor David Paterson and call for fiscal responsibility on the part of the government.

The Tea Party Express can be credited with the launch of the movement.  It began as the Our Country Deserves Better committee. They raised money worked the 2008 election for Sarah Palin. They formed Tea Party Express in February 2009.  The energy for the launch came from a CNBC rant by Rick Santelli who called for a Tea Party movement.  Tea Party Express was formed by the OCDB and they joined with Free Republic and held the first protest in Sacramento California in February 2009. They went on to organize the Washington DC protest in September 2009.

On September 12, 2009 the largest tea party event occurred. The Tea Party movement as we know it began in 2009 and was launched by protesters on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol and the National Mall at the Taxpayer March on Washington on September 12, 2009  It was attended by concerned voters demanding a reduction in the U.S. national debt and federal budget deficit by reducing government spending and taxes. 

The national debt had doubled from 5 trillion to 10 trillion and was being increased at the rate of 1 trillion a year. The first order of business in Congress in 2009 was Obamacare.  Joining in the protest Glenn Beck’s 9/12 movement began in 2009 and meetings began in October 2009.

The Tea Party.Net formed in 2009 and offered a website to start a tea party, find a tea party and join a tea party.

The Tea party Patriots formed in 2009 in Atlanta GA as a separate organization. In 2010, the group reportedly included over 2,200 local chapters,^[3] as well as an online community of 115,311 members,

The Tea Party movement started as a protest objecting to excessive federal spending and threats to raise taxes. Tea Parties immediately began forming in cities and counties throughout the US and they began to recruit conservative candidates.  These candidates won a lot of elections in 2010 and took over the House.

Coalitions Formed

From 2010 to 2012, Individual local Tea Party Groups organized and began to take on local, state and federal issues.  Other conservative groups like Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty and Taxpayer Associations joined in coalitions over local and state issues. 

By 2012, it was clear that federal government actions had devastated our economy. Most of us agreed with the Campaign for Liberty that returning to compliance with the US Constitution (as written) was necessary.  We would remove the federal government from activities they were using to crash our economy and destroy our Rights. 

We agreed that the Republican Party Platform and Resolutions supported our positions and we became more involved in GOP politics.  We ran into opposition from the GOP Progressives who picked McCain and Romney. They also had other RINOs in federal state and local office they were determined to protect from losing their elected positions. We have recruited “Constitutional” candidates and supported them for election ever since.

2012 Attack by GOP Progressives

The GOP Progressives would not support our goal to return the US to compliance with the US Constitution (as written). They want to keep the Federal Reserve and other violations intact.  They continue to campaign on Tea Party issues like closing the US Departments of Education and Energy, but this just appears to be “campaign talk” to get votes.  They rely heavily on campaign contributions from “the money guys”, who also want to preserve these violations.

Tea Partiers know that the entire global economy is built on central banking and corporations rely on government giveaways, but we also know this is unsustainable. We are engaged in the age-old battle of rooting out systemic political corruption at all levels.  As always, this is a fight for freedom and prosperity being strangled by abusive government.  This is a populist movement. We speak truth to power. Our real constituents are poor and middle class Americans and their descendants.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader