Tea Party Express will get involved in the New York special election next week and put their support behind Republican candidate Jane Corwin, in an effort to prevent Jack Davis, the candidate running on the ‘Tea Party’ ballot line but without local Tea Party support, from playing spoiler in the election.
Recent polling showed Davis, who has previously run for the congressional seat as a Democrat, taking 24 percent of the vote, leaving Corwin and her Democratic opponent, Kathy Hochul, virtually tied. Davis is taking more votes from Corwin than Hochul, raising concerns among Corwin supporters.
The details of the effort have not yet been ironed out.
“This was a somewhat last-minute decision,” said Tea Party Express spokesperson Levi Russell, “as we saw the fake ‘tea party’ candidate – who is a liberal democrat – gaining traction and potentially spoiling the race. So we just recently decided to shine a spotlight on that race and help educate the voters about who the true conservative is.”
Rus Thompson of local Tea Party group, TEA New York, said that he had extended an invitation to Tea Party Express, and that he was also reaching out to other organizations like Tea Party Patriots.
“Jack Davis is not a Tea Party guy and I cannot let him get away with trying to hijack the whole movement for his political aspirations,” said Thompson.
“I’ve often been critical of Tea Party Express as they’ve traveled around the country getting involved in races where I think the decision should be made at the local level,” said Thompson. “But we have a situation like this … Jack Davis pretending to be the Tea party guy … I’m calling in all the big guns.”