Victories Suggest Wider Appeal of Tea Party

The Tea Party victories by Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida, underscored the extent to which Republicans and Democrats alike may have underestimated the power of the Tea Party, a loosely-affiliated, at times ill-defined, coalition of grass-roots libertarians and disaffected Republicans.In exit polls, four in 10 voters expressed support for the Tea Party Movement.

In the case of Mr. Rubio and Mr. Paul, both of the new Senators-elect challenged far more established Republicans to win their primaries. Mr. Paul beat a Republican who was supported by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and Mr. Rubio’s spirited run forced Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, a moderate Republican who was initially favored to win the Senate seat, to bolt from the Republican Party and run as an independent. And Democrats initially considered both so conservative — some Democrats called them “extreme” — as to be unelectable.

But in an expected setback, Christine O’Donnell, another Tea Party-backed candidate. lost her race against Christopher Coons in Delaware after running a campaign that became a lightning rod for Democrats who seized on Ms. O’Donnell’s colorful past.

The primary victory of Mr. Paul, the son of Representative Ron Paul, a Texas Republican who ran for president on a libertarian platform in 2008, initially lifted the hopes of Democrats, who believed they could capitalize on some of Mr. Paul’s outside-the-mainstream views to help them win the Kentucky Senate seat. At first it looked like it might work.

Mr. Paul set off a furor after winning the primary by saying he disagreed in principle with the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 because he did not believe the government should prevent discrimination in private businesses, such as luncheonettes. (He quickly sought to put the issue to rest by declaring that he supported the act, and would have voted for it.) He touched off more controversy by calling the Obama administration ”un-American” for taking a tough stance with BP over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. And Democrats seized on statements Mr. Paul had made about raising the Social Security retirement age, and questioning the legality of the Americans with Disabilities Act, to try to paint him as extreme.

But Jack Conway, the Democratic Senate candidate in Kentucky, had trouble gaining traction in what was shaping up as a tough year for Democrats. And the enthusiasm of Tea Party members helped propel him to victory.

And Mr. Paul, like Mr. Rubio, benefited from millions of dollars of campaign spending by outside groups supporting their candidacies.

In Florida, the candidacy of Mr. Rubio, a Miami Republican and former House speaker, was initially considered an incredible long-shot. The smart money was initially on Governor Crist, the state’s centrist Republican governor. But his support of President Obama’s stimulus — which sent money to the state to build a high-speed train from Orlando to Tampa, among other things — drew the ire of conservatives. Soon Mr. Rubio was able to capitalize on that anger, with the support of Tea Party activists, and beat Mr. Crist in a three-way race.

With two quick victories in hand, Tea Party supporters began to look west, where the polls close later, where they have a number of other high-profile candidates, including Sharron Angle, who is trying to oust Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader.