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Washington: Mainstream US Republicans led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell defeated Tea Party challengers in key primaries on Tuesday, setting the stage for their bid to regain full control of Congress in November.

Republicans lead the House of Representatives and are determined to wrest the Senate from President Barack Obama's Democrats in this year's mid-term elections.

Voters in six states, from Georgia in the US southeast to the Pacific northwest Oregon, cast ballots on what became known as the "Super Tuesday" of the 2014 campaign. But most eyes were on Kentucky, a key battleground between traditional Republicans and members of the party's more conservative, populist "Tea Party" wing.

The anti-establishment fervor sweeping much of the country seems not to have taken as strong a hold in Kentucky, and well-funded veteran incumbent McConnell, 72, trounced Tea Party backed challenger Matt Bevin in one of the most expensive - and closely watched - primaries of 2014.

If he is reelected in November, and if Republicans gain a net six seats in the 100-seat chamber to regain control, McConnell would lead the Senate majority and be positioned to block Obama's legislative efforts in his last two years in the White House.

"Send me back to Washington and Kentucky will always have a champion in the Capitol," McConnell told cheering supporters in his victory speech.

But he faces perhaps the most formidable election challenge of his 30-year Senate career in Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, who won her party's primary and immediately set her sites on ousting McConnell.

"Mitch McConnell would have you believe that President Obama is on Kentucky's 2014 election ballot," Grimes told supporters, referring to McConnell warning voters that Grimes would merely be a back-bencher for a president pushing his unpopular health care law and other liberal mandates.

"Senator McConnell, this race is between you and me," the 35-year-old Grimes said. "That's the name that appears on the ballot."

Rediscovering conservative principles

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Republicans Face Fown Tea Party Rests in US Primaries

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- Establishment Republicans, backed by business-friendly outside groups, launched a counter-offensive this year against conservative Senate challengers after two election cycles of hard-right candidates winning GOP primaries but losing in November.

Republicans need to flip six seats this year to win back the majority and don't want the same scenario to play out again. The tea party's scorecard this year is far different than in 2010 and 2012, when it knocked off several establishment-backed candidates.

Short-lived tea party victories

It's too early to say if the party's over, but as Stuart Rothenberg of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report wrote earlier this month, "it's already clear that the pragmatist conservatives have stopped the anti-establishment's electoral momentum."

Midterm users guide: 15 things to know

March 4

Firebrand Republican Rep. Steve Stockman launched a last-minute bid against Texas Sen. John Cornyn, but he never seriously challenged the incumbent. Cornyn won by more than 40 points.

May 6

North Carolina state House Speaker Thom Tillis won big against his top two conservative opponents, winning enough of the vote in the primary to avoid a costly runoff that would have delayed his general election face-off against Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, one of the nation's most vulnerable incumbents.

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Tea party scorecard

How to Pronounce Progressives
Learn how to say Progressives correctly with EmmaSaying #39;s "how do you pronounce" free tutorials. Definition of progressive (oxford dictionary): adjective of ...

By: Emma Saying

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How to Pronounce Progressives - Video

Nothing But Truth: Jim Hoft on Progressives Today #39;s Investigation Abortion Industry

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Nothing But Truth: Jim Hoft on Progressives Today's Investigation Abortion Industry - Video

Progressivism was the reform movement that ran from the late 19th century through the first decades of the 20th century, during which leading intellectuals and social reformers in the United States sought to address the economic, political, and cultural questions that had arisen in the context of the rapid changes brought with the Industrial Revolution and the growth of modern capitalism in America. The Progressives believed that these changes marked the end of the old order and required the creation of a new order appropriate for the new industrial age.

There are, of course, many different representations of Progressivism: the literature of Upton Sinclair, the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, the history of Charles Beard, the educational system of John Dewey. In politics and political thought, the movement is associated with political leaders such as Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt and thinkers such as Herbert Croly and Charles Merriam.

While the Progressives differed in their assessment of the problems and how to resolve them, they generally shared in common the view that government at every level must be actively involved in these reforms. The existing constitutional system was outdated and must be made into a dynamic, evolving instrument of social change, aided by scientific knowledge and the development of administrative bureaucracy.

At the same time, the old system was to be opened up and made more democratic; hence, the direct elections of Senators, the open primary, the initiative and referendum. It also had to be made to provide for more revenue; hence, the Sixteenth Amendment and the progressive income tax.

Presidential leadership would provide the unity of direction -- the vision -- needed for true progressive government. "All that progressives ask or desire," wrote Woodrow Wilson, "is permission -- in an era when development, evolution, is a scientific word -- to interpret the Constitution according to the Darwinian principle; all they ask is recognition of the fact that a nation is a living thing and not a machine."

What follows is a discussion about the effect that Progressivism has had -- and continues to have -- on American politics and political thought. The remarks stem from the publication of The Progressive Revolution in Politics and Political Science (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), to which Dr. West contributed.

Remarks by Thomas G. West

The thesis of our book, The Progressive Revolution in Politics and Political Science, is that Progressivism transformed American politics. What was that transformation? It was a total rejection in theory, and a partial rejection in practice, of the principles and policies on which America had been founded and on the basis of which the Civil War had been fought and won only a few years earlier. When I speak of Progressivism, I mean the movement that rose to prominence between about 1880 and 1920.

In a moment I will turn to the content of the Progressive conception of politics and to the contrast between that approach and the tradition, stemming from the founding, that it aimed to replace. But I would like first to emphasize how different is the assessment of Progressivism presented in our book, The Progressive Revolution, from the understanding that prevails among most scholars. It is not much of an exaggeration to say that few scholars, especially among students of American political thought, regard the Progressive Era as having any lasting significance in American history. In my own college and graduate student years, I cannot recall any of the famous teachers with whom I studied saying anything much about it. Among my teachers were some very impressive men: Walter Berns, Allan Bloom, Harry Jaffa, Martin Diamond, Harry Neumann, and Leo Strauss.

Today, those who speak of the formative influences that made America what it is today tend to endorse one of three main explanations. Some emphasize material factors such as the closing of the frontier, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of the modern corporation, and accidental emergencies such as wars or the Great Depression, which in turn led to the rise of the modern administrative state.

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The Progressive Movement and the Transformation of ...