Being a combative, anti-establishment conservative in 2016 hasn’t exactly been the pathway to political success. Just ask U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and now Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.).
Following Huelskamp’s devastating Republican primary loss Tuesday night, many political experts were on the major news networks were ready to declare the tea party movement dead. But is it?
In Kansas, voters were angered that Huelskamp had allowed his feud with establishment Republicans to result in his removal from the House Agriculture Committee. This resulted in a Farm Bureau-Chamber of Commerce alliance that won Great Bend obstetrician Dr. Roger Marshall the GOP nomination.
There is no Democrat on the ballot for that congressional race, just a former Republican congressional candidate who lost to Huelskamp in 2014 and is running as an independent in 2016.
But 1,200 miles to the east, another story is developing that seems to suggest the tea party movement’s epitaph need not be written so soon. In Pennsylvania, popular tea party insurgent Art Halvorson will be running not as an independent, but as the Democrat in the November election in an effort to unseat establishment Republican Rep. Bill Shuster, who is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Halvorson won enough write-in votes from Democrats in the April primary to receive the party’s endorsement. The move, to no one’s surprise, is unprecedented in American politics, and goes to show the level of distrust with government officials from both political parties.
After the announcement was made Tuesday, Halvorson made the following statement:
“I’m deeply humbled by the coming together of voters in both parties for the critical, common goal of rescuing America from the corrupt career politicians who’ve betrayed our conservative values and sold us up the river to corporate lobbyists.”
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