Purging the Republican Party

Tea Party Campaigns and Elections

By (author) Ronald T. Libby

Not available to order

Publication date:

22 November 2013

Length of book:

168 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739187647

This is the first book that explains the Tea Party’s successful “primary” campaign against Republicans in Name Only (RINOs). Grassroots Tea Party activists adopted this strategy in 2009 shortly after the movement emerged. The first successful campaign occurred in upstate New York where the Tea Party defeated Dede Scozzafava, a RINO running for congress in a Republican primary that only elected Republicans to office during the previous 100 years. Armed with success, they defeated “conservative” Utah Senator Bob Bennett an eighteen-year veteran and then proceeded to defeat the popular Republican (RINO) governor of Florida Charlie Crist and elected the virtually unknown Tea Party candidate, Marco Rubio. This placed all Republicans on notice that if they do not follow conservative fiscal policies, they could be “primaried.” The Tea Party’s goal is to take control of the Republican Party and return it to its original, fiscal conservatism.
Libby’s book is not just a detailed account of the rise, ideology, and electoral success of the Tea Party that brings much-needed balance to mainstream media accounts, it also provides important insights into the continuing fight over the soul of the Republican Party.