The Tea Party in American Politics

The Tea Party has come to prominence in the last several years as a force to be reckoned with in American politics. The Tea Party movement has affected major electoral races, publicly supporting some candidates and renouncing others, leading to placement of Tea Party-supporting representatives in Congress and losses by some highly favored opponents of the Tea Party. The movement relies on a great amount of support from Republicans, yet acts in ways that could classify it as an independent movement. In order to answer the question of what, exactly, the Tea Party movement is, and what it has the potential to become, this article examines survey data to compare attitudes and beliefs between Tea Party supporters and the rest of the population. The data point to a classification of the Tea Party as a faction of the Republican Party, with the potential for support independent of the major parties as a possible third party in the future.