The Tea Party Movement and the 2012 House Election

Abstract

This article examines Tea Party candidates for the US House of Representative in 2012. Tea Party and Tea Party-endorsed candidates are similar to other Republican candidates. Although they have served in the House for a shorter period, they have approximately the same fi nancial resources, prior political experience, and reelection rate as other Republicans. Multivariate analysis fi nds that Tea Party membership and endorsement have no impact on electoral outcome when other political factors are controlled for (e.g., incumbency, running for an open seat, quality of opposing candidate, prior political experience, fi nancial resources, and Obama's vote). Consequently, the success of Tea Party candidates depends on acquiring the traditional political resources, having weak opponents, and running in favorably disposed constituencies rather than identifi cation with this highly visible political movement.

Do Ideological Attacks Change How Voters Evaluate Primary Election Candidates?

“…Candidates appear to have responded to the polarized political environment by increasingly invoking ideology in political campaigns (Lau, 2013; McNitt, 2014; Murakami, 2008). This is especially apparent in primary elections, during which candidates compete for the lion’s share of their party’s base.…”

“…This last development has been heralded by some as a positive one for citizen competence: voters have long used party identification as a heuristic when discriminating between candidates (Kam, 2005;Lau & Redlawsk, 2001;Rahn, 1993), but polarization has enhanced that heuristic's usefulness as a substitute for more deliberate issue voting (Levendusky, 2010). 1 Candidates appear to have responded to the polarized political environment by increasingly invoking ideology in political campaigns (Lau, 2013;McNitt, 2014;Murakami, 2008). This is especially apparent in primary elections, during which candidates compete for the lion's share of their party's base.…”