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(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sen. Mike Lee takes a few questions as the Tea Party Express comes to Utah to endorse for 2016 and express support for his efforts to transform the country during a press conference at the Grand America Hotel on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013.

GOP politics Utah senator tries to broaden appeal yet stay true to conservative cause.

Washington A tea-party strategist who tried two years ago to defeat Sen. Orrin Hatch and helped topple Sen. Bob Bennett before that will now be a key architect in the re-election effort of Hatchs colleague, Sen. Mike Lee.

Lee has hired Russ Walker, the national political director of the tea party umbrella group FreedomWorks, to serve in the same role for Lees 2016 campaign.

FreedomWorks spent nearly $1 million in 2012 trying to unseat Sen. Orrin Hatch, and Walker was at the forefront of the effort.

"There is no reason why Orrin Hatch should represent Utah," Walker told Politico at the time. Hatch, after spending millions, won re-election.

It was a different story in 2010, when FreedomWorks and Walker helped Lee take out Bennett. The group has been a big supporter of Lees Senate actions; He is one of only two senators with a 100 percent voting record on the FreedomWorks scorecard.

The establishment Republican Party has tried to tamp down intraparty challenges in recent years as FreedomWorks and similar groups back challenges to incumbents in bruising, money-fueled primaries.

While Lee has sought to broaden his appeal in the last year with a conservative-populist approach, his hiring of Walker suggests Lee doesnt plan to walk away from the groups that got him to the Senate chamber.

Lee spokesman Brian Phillips says Walker, who has worked for Republican candidates during his career and for FreedomWorks, or its previous incarnations, for 14 years, can help the cause of party unity.

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Lee hires tea party strategist who tried to take out Hatch