DOVER, Del.— With just a few hours before the polls close here, the Tea Party Express is bashing the media, saying members of the press will call tonight’s results in the U.S. Senate race a Tea Party loss regardless of who wins.
“As voters head to the polls in Delaware today, the news media and many in the political establishment have sought to cast tonight’s election returns as a lose-lose proposition for the Tea Party movement,” reads a statement released by the Tea Party Express, a California-based organization that has spent thousands on Republican candidate Christine O’Donnell in her insurgent bid against liberal Republican Rep. Mike Castle.
“If Conservative Republican Christine O’Donnell wins, the news media and political elite insist that this will be a loss for the Tea Party movement, as it will surely mean a win for the Democrats in November, and increase their chances for retaining a majority in the U.S. Senate,” the group said. “But wait, if Liberal RINO Mike Castle wins, the news media and political elite similarly insist that this will be a loss for the Tea Party movement, as it will mean the establishment has defeated the Tea Party-backed candidate.
“So under the logic of those in the media and the political establishment, the Tea Party movement loses either way. Nice try, but we at the Tea Party Express aren’t buying this narrative.”
In an interview with The Daily Caller earlier Tuesday outside a polling station at Dover High School, O’Donnell dismissed critics who say she can’t win in November if victorious in today’s primary.
“They’re the same people who said I couldn’t win here,” said O’Donnell, dressed in a red jacket and black pants. “I mean, look where we are in the polls. They said I’d never get beyond a few percentage points.”
But the notion that she’d be an easier candidate for Democrats to beat in November was on the minds of voters heading into the polls Tuesday.
“They only thing the Democrats care about is they want her to win,” whispered Democrat activist John Mancus, a state employee campaigning for a Democratic state treasurer Tuesday at Dover High School Tuesday, while O’Donnell, meanwhile, was standing just a few feet away greeting voters and handing out campaign literature.
The Tea Party Express, who is running radio ads in support of O’Donnell today, has scheduled a sign-waving gathering at the mall here in Dover this afternoon to encourage last-minute voters to get to the polls before they close at 8 p.m. eastern on Tuesday.