Melissa Ross
It’s billed as the first book that examines the Tea Party’s successful “primary” campaign against what the movement has dubbed Republicans in Name Only (RINOs).
(Another, less flattering nickname is cuckservative, but that’s a story for another day.)
UNF political science professor Ron Libby argues that 2016 is the year the Tea Party has moved from local and Congressional contests to the biggest prize in politics — the White House — in Purging the Republican Party: Tea Party Campaigns and Elections.
Libby will present the ideas in his book at the upcoming Iowa Conference on Presidential Politics, which is expected to be attended by 2016 candidates from both parties leading up to the February Iowa caucuses.
“This is the first time that the Tea Party is able to compete for the Republican presidential nomination,” Libby tells Florida Politics. “In the past, from 2009-2012, they focused on Congressional races. They have a strategy called “primarying” where they challenge someone from the right. Now, in the 2016 election, they’re contesting for the Republican presidential nomination. And what that reflects is that they’ve basically taken over the base of the Republican party. And that’s what the media doesn’t understand.
“They don’t get that they’re not Republicans. And two, they’ve taken over the grassroots base. That’s why the RINOs like Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina and even Marco Rubio and Chris Christie, establishment candidates, won’t win. The media thinks if they give wonderful performances — the media is focused on words – that there will be a shift in the polls. It’s not gonna happen. The Tea Party is not gonna vote for these people.”
Libby points out, 60 percent of the Republican voters who go to caucuses and vote in primaries are affiliated with the Tea Party.
“For these voters, Trump/Carson is their dream ticket.”
