Reading the Tea Leaves

To no one’s surprise, this week’s primaries suggest the Tea Party is indeed a force to be reckoned with. But as Peter Katel noted in his CQ Researcher report on March 19, 2010, the movement’s big test comes in November in 25 states, where at least 58 candidates, mostly for House seats, say they share Tea Party beliefs. “Meanwhile,” Katel wrote, “some dissension has appeared among tea partiers, with many preferring to sidestep social issues…. Still, the movement exerts strong appeal for citizens fearful of growing government debt and distrustful of the administration.”

Thomas J. Colin, Managing Editor, CQ Researcher