In six states — Kentucky, Nevada, Florida, Utah, Colorado and Minnesota — tea-party-backed Republican Senate candidates have won nomination or are favored in upcoming primaries. They are attracting outsize attention not only from Democrats and the media, but from conservative leaders such as former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Fox News host Glenn Beck.
Republicans such as Paul and Sharron Angle in Nevada may hold provocative views, but “they’re our nominees and I think we ought to get behind them 100 percent,” said Sen. John Cornyn (Tex.).
“The candidates are not ours to choose,” said Cornyn, chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee. “They’re the choice of the primary voters in the states, and I think we should respect their choices.”
Yet some Republicans worry that tea-party candidates are settling too comfortably into their roles as unruly insurgents and could prove hard to manage if they get elected. Paul, who beat GOP establishment favorite Trey Grayson in Kentucky’s primary, told the National Review that he would seek to join forces with GOP Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.) and Tom Coburn (Okla.), “who are unafraid to stand up” and who have blocked numerous bills advanced by both parties deemed by the pair as expanding government.
Full story: Republican lawmakers gird for rowdy tea party