The tea party movement is aiming for victories in Georgia’s congressional primary runoffs next month, emboldened by its stunning success in unseating House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Offshoots of the small-government movement are backing several candidates for Atlanta-area congressional seats. Meanwhile, tea party activists are planning an August “boot camp” in Norcross that will train adherents how to recruit candidates, organize their campaigns and get their messages out on social media.
“Cantor’s defeat is going to give renewed energy to the conservative base,” said Dan Backer, treasurer with the Virginia-based Tea Party Leadership Fund PAC, which has endorsed several congressional candidates in Georgia. “It’s going to motivate and fire them up in a big way.”
The movement started in 2009 as a protest against federal bailouts and other government efforts to boost the struggling economy. Since then, it has spawned numerous groups with different goals, though they generally share a desire for a smaller federal government and a smaller national debt. They also routinely clash with the Republican establishment.
A little known college professor, Dave Brat defeated Cantor — the second most powerful Republican in the House — in Virginia’s GOP primary this week after accusing Cantor of supporting “amnesty” for immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
The Tea Party Leadership Fund PAC has endorsed Jody Hice, a conservative radio talk show host, and former state Sen. Barry Loudermilk. Hice and Loudermilk are campaigning as strict constitutionalists who oppose amnesty for immigrants without papers and want to repeal Obamacare and eliminate the U.S. Education Department. Both are competing against formidable opponents who aren’t ceding tea party support.
Hice, for example, is facing off against Mike Collins — a trucking company executive from Jackson and the son of former U.S. Rep. Mac Collins — in Georgia’s 10th District. The district includes parts of Gwinnett and Henry counties and stretches to the South Carolina border. The candidates are vying to replace Republican U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, a tea party-friendly congressman who mounted an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate.
Like Hice, Collins opposes amnesty for immigrants without papers, though he is focusing his campaign on boosting the nation’s economy.
“I tell folks all the time I was probably tea party before there was a tea party,” Collins said in an interview following a recent candidates’ forum in Athens. “They are just good, hard-working Americans that don’t want their Constitution trampled on, that are tired of the spending, that are taxed too much and that just want to make a living and provide for their families. That is who they are. That’s who I am.”
A former Baptist minister from Monroe, Hice has picked up endorsements from tea party groups in Gwinnett and Walton counties. He wants to block automatic birthright citizenship for the U.S.-born children of immigrants living illegally here.
“As a general rule, [the tea party] is a bunch of Americans who are very frustrated and I share that frustration,” Hice said. “I’m a strong constitutional Christian conservative, and that… largely defines the tea party groups in this district.”
Hice and Collins were forced into a runoff after neither collected more than 50 percent of the vote in the seven-way primary for the Republican nomination. The winner of their July 22 runoff will face will face Democrat Ken Dious, an Athens attorney, in November in the overwhelmingly Republican district.
In Georgia’s 11th District, Loudermilk is squaring off against former congressman Bob Barr to replace U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate. Loudermilk and Barr survived a six-way GOP primary to compete in the runoff for the district, which covers all of Bartow and Cherokee counties and parts of Cobb and Fulton counties. No Democrat is running, so whoever wins the runoff will head to Washington.
Like Loudermilk, Barr opposes granting amnesty to immigrants living illegally in the U.S. The former congressman is emphasizing his four terms in Congress and his pledge to shrink the size of the federal government. The Canton Tea Party has named Barr its favorite in the race.
“The tea parties are not in any sense of the word monolithic,” Barr said. “We meet with a lot of tea party members, who are very appreciative of not just the fact that I talk the talk but I have actually demonstratively walked the walk.”
Loudermilk is a small business owner who founded Firm Reliance, a group that teaches about constitutional principles. In 2011, he voted for Georgia’s stringent immigration enforcement legislation, which was partly modeled on a similar law in Arizona.
Loudermilk has picked up endorsements from several tea party groups, including Tea Party Express and FreedomWorks, a Washington-based organization that recruits and trains tea party activists. During a recent interview at his Woodstock campaign office, Loudermilk underscored the endorsements he has received from businessmen.
“My beliefs and my values and the way we campaign and the way I have legislated in the past [are] a bridge between what you consider the establishment and those tea party groups,” he said.
Several tea party activists said they were heartened by Brat’s victory over Cantor and hope it will create dividends for their movement in Georgia.
“First of all, it means the tea party is not dead, contrary to statements that have been out there,” said Carolyn Cosby, a tea party activist from Ball Ground who is gathering signatures to run for chairman of the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners. “Obviously, this means we are shaking up the Republican Party and we are making them hear the voices of the real conservatives.”
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