Nebraska Tea Party favourite captures Republican nomination for Senate

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/14/republican-tea-party-nebraska-senate-primary

Version 0 of 1.

The conservative Tea Party movement scored a win over the Republican establishment as its favorite captured the Republican nomination for US Senate in Nebraska in a bitter race that highlighted the fissures within the party. Two women set the stage for history-making in West Virginia by winning their party's Senate nominations.

Voters in the two states were deciding their party's lineups Tuesday in the latest round of spring primaries ahead of the November elections which will determine control of Congress for the last two years of President Obama's second term.

In November's elections, Republicans aim to increase their majority in the House of Representatives and are cautiously optimistic about gaining a majority in the Senate, where Democrats now control 55 of 100 seats. That would give Republicans full control of Congress for the first time since they were swept out in 2006, during President George W Bush's final term. Obama has already seen much of his legislative agenda stymied since Democrats lost control of the House of Representatives in 2010.

In Nebraska, university president Ben Sasse captured the Republican Senate nomination by grabbing 48% of the vote in a five-man primary. Sid Dinsdale, the president of Pinnacle Bank, surged to second, and former state treasurer Shane Osborn finished third.

The limited government, anti-tax Tea Party movement, which was blamed by establishment Republicans for the party's recent failures to take the Senate, has struggled this year as candidates have lost to establishment favorites in Texas, North Carolina and Ohio. Nebraska represented the insurgent movement's best remaining shot to secure a Senate nomination. Looking ahead to upcoming primaries, the Tea Party's chances to upset incumbents have been diminishing in states like Kentucky, where Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell faces re-election.

For months, Sasse was locked in an increasingly negative race with Osborn, who had the support of the Washington establishment and allies of McConnell. Sasse, the president of Midland University, had the backing of some Tea Party and pro-business groups as well as two of the right's heroes — ex-Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and senator Ted Cruz of Texas — in his bid to replace Republican Senator Mike Johanns, who is retiring after a single six-year term.

Sasse focused on his conservative credentials, opposition to abortion, support for gun rights and the goal of repealing and replacing Obama's health care law, which is despised by conservative activists who influence the primary process.

"We were never doing this because we need another job," Sasse told supporters Tuesday night. "We were only going to do this if we were going to talk about big, bold, conservative ideas."

Sasse is a heavy favorite against Democratic nominee Dave Domina in the Republican-leaning state in the November election.

Republicans need to gain six seats to grab a Senate majority — and are hopeful of picking up these seats from Democrats in states that supported Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in the 2012 election.

Republicans had also hoped to capture the Senate in 2010 and 2012, but saw their chances fade as conservative tea party candidates ousted establishment favorites in primaries but were considered too extreme in the general election and lost to otherwise vulnerable Democrats.

In West Virginia, Republican Shelley Moore Capito and Democrat Natalie Tennant cruised to primary wins and will square off in a Senate showdown in November that will give the state its first female US senator.

Capito is a seven-term congresswoman and daughter of former Governor Arch Moore; Tennant is the state's secretary of state. Democratic senator Jay Rockefeller is retiring after 30 years in a socially conservative state that has become increasingly Republican.

Capito enters the general election contest as the heavy favorite. If elected, she would be the first Republican senator from West Virginia since 1959.

Since 2000, the state has voted Republican in presidential elections, and the transformation is widely expected to continue this year as Republicans capitalize on voter antipathy toward Obama, who lost all of the state's 55 counties in 2012.

In Nebraska's Republican primary for governor, Omaha businessman Pete Ricketts narrowly defeated Attorney General Jon Bruning. Term limits prevented Republican Governor Dave Heineman from running again.