Mediaboss Marketing

US Senate Republican leader Senator Mitch McConnell and his wife Elaine Chao address a crowd of supporters after defeating Tea Party challenger Matt Bevin in the state Republican primary elections in Louisville, Kentucky. Photograph: John Sommers II/Reuters

The Tea Party is pretty much over for the 2014 midterm elections, with the limited-government movement losing four of Tuesdays most closely watched races in Republican primaries from Georgia to Idaho.

In its power struggle with the Republican Partys business- oriented wing, the Tea Party has now captured just one US Senate nomination this year, for an open seat in Nebraska, and has lost any momentum it may have had going into the final, high-profile primary, a Mississippi challenge to Senator Thad Cochran on June 3rd.

It is a turnaround from 2010 and 2012, when untested Tea Party candidates grabbed headlines by winning Republican Senate primaries, only to lose most general elections to Democrats an outcome party leaders say cost them the chambers majority.

These results are a big step in the right direction, said Republican strategist Scott Reed, who advises the US Chamber of Commerce.

After the 2012 election, Mr Reed said the chambers leadership instructed its political operation to get more engaged in candidate selection and primaries to identify and support House and Senate candidates that believe in growth, governing and can win in November.

Intra-party fight Senate or US House candidates aligned with the Tea Party lost yesterday in Georgia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Idaho. Those contests were widely viewed as this years pinnacle in the intra-party fight.

Besides selecting candidates with a better chance of winning in November, the business-backed coalition is also seeking to boost candidates who are more steeped in and supportive of an economic agenda, including ensuring that the US does not default on its debt.

Nominating the strongest candidates is essential because theres little room for error, if Republicans are to secure the net gain of six seats they need to win control of the Senate.

So far, Republicans are getting the candidates they want for the general election, said Jennifer Duffy, who studies Senate races as a senior editor for the non-partisan Cook Political Report in Washington. It was not a good night for the Tea Party.

See more here:
Tea Party candidates lose four primary contests