Tea Boils: Rand Paul Wins

  • Share
  • Read Later

It’s not clear what will happen to several high-profile Tea Party candidates tonight, including Joe Miller, Ken Buck and Sharron Angle. But at least one of them will be joining the U.S. Senate, and perhaps the one who best represents the movement’s anti-government ethos, fierce constitutionalism, and rejection of the Republican Party establishment. That would be Kentucky’s Rand Paul, whose father is, after all, the effective godfather of the Tea Party movement.

On the other hand, Christine O’Donnell has lost in Delaware–as has the Tea Party-backed House candidate, Glen Urquhart.

Meanwhile, Republican Rob Portman has defeated Democrat Lee Fisher in Ohio. But although the NYT says that Portman’s win “signaled that the party was running strong in a battleground state that had been the focus of intense campaigning in recent days by Democratic leaders,” Fisher had long been trailing badly and the result is not really a surprise. The Ohio race that still has Democrats holding their breath is for governor of Ohio.