Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Most research has examined the influence of the Tea Party as a social movement or loose organization, but less is known about its influence within legislative party politics, especially at the state level. In this paper, we argue that in this context the Tea Party is primarily an intraparty faction that has caused significant divisions inside the Republican Party. Using an original dataset of legislators across 13 states for the years 2010 to 2013, we examine legislator and district-level characteristics that predict state legislators’ affiliation with the Tea Party. Our results reveal that in some respects legislators affiliated with the Tea Party are a far-right wing of the Republican Party. However, by other measures that capture anti-establishment political sentiment, Tea Party affiliated legislators comprise a factional group attempting to transform the Party in ways that go beyond ideology. These findings have important implications for the future prospects of the GOP.

Keywords

factions parties Republican Party state legislatures Tea Party

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arceneaux

Nicholson

S. P.

(2012). Who wants to have a Tea party? The who, what and why of the tea party movement. Political Science and Politics, 45(4), 700–710.

Ashbee

(2011). Bewitched – The tea party movement: Ideas, interests and institutions. The Political Quarterly, 82(2), 157–164.

Baer

(2000). Reinventing Democrats: The Politics of Liberalism from Reagan to Clinton. University of Kansas Press.

Ball

(2016, May 10). Is the tea party responsible for Donald Trump? The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/did-the-tea-party-create-donald-trump/482004/

Beller

Belloni

F. P.

(1978). Party and faction. In Beller

D. C.

Belloni

(Eds.), Politics Faction (pp. 417–450). ABC-Clio.

Blum

R. M.

(2020). How the tea party captured the GOP: Insurgent factions in American politics. University of Chicago Press.

Bullock

C. S.

Hood

M. V.

(2012). The Tea Party, Sarah Palin, and the 2010 congressional elections: The aftermath of the election of Barack Obama. Social Science Quarterly, 93(5), 1424–1435.

Burghart

(2014). The status of the tea party movement: State rankings. Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. https://www.irehr.org/2014/01/25/the-status-of-the-tea-party-movement-state-rankings/

Cillizza

(2015, January 15). Republicans have gained more than 900 state legislative seats since 2010. The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/01/14/republicans-have-gained-more-than-900-state-legislative-seats-since-2010/

10.

Clement

Green

(2011, February 23). The tea party, religion, and social issues. Pew Research Center: Religion and Public Life. http://www.pewforum.org/2011/02/23/tea-party-and-religion/

11.

Coaston

(2018, May 16). In 2018, the tea party is all in for Trump. Vox. https://www.vox.com/2018/5/15/17263774/tea-party-trump-2018

12.

Coll

(2013, October 28). Party crashers. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/11/04/party-crashers

13.

Deckman

(2016). Tea party women: Mama Grizzlies, grassroots leaders, and the changing face of the American right. New York University Press.

14.

Desilver

(2015, October 20). What is the House Freedom Caucus, and Who’s in it? Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/10/20/house-freedom-caucus-what-is-it-and-whos-in-it/

15.

DiMaggio

(2011). The rise of the Tea Party: Political disconnect and corporate media in the age of Obama. Monthly Review Press.

16.

DiSalvo

(2009). Party factions in congress. Congress & the Presidency, 36(1), 27–57.

17.

Gervais

B. T.

Morris

I. L.

(2012). Reading the tea leaves: Understanding tea party caucus membership in the U.S. House of Representatives. Political Science & Politics, 45(2), 245–250.

18.

Gervais

B. T.

Morris

I. L.

(2018). Reactionary Republicanism: How the tea party in the house paved the way for Trump’s victory. Oxford University Press.

19.

Grossmann

Hopkins

D. A.

(2015). Ideological Republicans and group interest Democrats: The asymmetry of American party politics. Perspectives on Politics, 13(1), 119–139.

20.

Hood

M. V.

Kidd

Morris

I. L.

(2015). Tea leaves and southern politics: Explaining tea party support in the region. Social Science Quarterly, 96(4), 923–940.

21.

Kabaservice

(2020, December 4). The forever grievance. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/12/04/tea-party-trumpism-conservatives-populism/?arc404=true

22.

Karpowitz

C. F.

Monson

J. Q.

Patterson

K. D.

Pope

J. C.

(2011). Tea time in America? The impact of the tea party movement on the 2010 midterm elections. Political Science & Politics, 44(2), 303–309.

23.

La Raja

Rauch

(2020, June 29). How inexperienced candidates and primary challenges are making Republicans the protest party. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/29/how-inexperienced-candidates-and-primary-challenges-are-making-republicans-the-protest-party/

24.

Lee

F. E.

(2015). How party polarization affects governance. Annual Review of Political Science, 18, 261–282.

25.

Mann

Ornstein

(2012). It’s even worse than it looks: How the American constitutional system collided with the new politics of extremism. Basic Books.

26.

Maxwell

Parent

T. W.

(2012). The Obama trigger: Presidential approval and Tea party membership. Social Science Quarterly, 93(5), 1384–1401.

27.

Montgomery

(2017, May 6). Riding sanctuary success, tea party-aligned caucus still loud and proud. Fort Worth Star-Telegram. https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article149075389.html

28.

Parker

Barreto

(2014). Change they Can’t believe in: The tea party and reactionary politics in America. Princeton University Press.

29.

Pew Research Center. (2018, March 20). Trends in party affiliation among demographic groups. Pew Research Center. https://www.people-press.org/2018/03/20/1-trends-in-party-affiliation-among-demographic-groups/

30.

Ragusa

J. M.

Gaspar

(2016). Where’s the tea party? An examination of the tea Party’s voting behavior in the house of representatives. Political Research Quarterly, 69(2), 361–372.

31.

Reiter

H. L.

(2004). Factional persistence within parties in the United States. Party Politics, 10(3), 251–271.

32.

Rocha

R. R.

Espino

(2009). Racial threat, residential segregation, and the policy attitudes of Anglos. Political Research Quarterly, 62(2), 415–426.

33.

Schreiber

(2012). “Mama Grizzlies compete for office. New Political Science, 34(4), 549–563.

34.

Sciupac

Smith

(2018, November 7). How religious groups voted in the midterm elections. Pew Research Center. http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/11/07/how-religious-groups-voted-in-the-midterm-elections/

35.

Shor

McCarty

(2018). American legislatures project (version 5.0). www.americanlegislatures.com

36.

Skocpol

Williamson

(2012). The tea party and the remaking of Republican conservatism. Oxford University Press.

37.

Squire

(2007). Measuring state legislative professionalism: The squire index revisited. State Politics & Policy Quarterly, 7(2), 211–227.

38.

Thomsen

D. M.

(2014). Ideological moderates won’t run: How party fit matters for partisan polarization in Congress. The Journal of Politics, 76(3), 786–797.

39.

Williamson

(2016, November 9). What the tea party tells us about the Trump presidency. Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2016/11/09/tea-party-and-trump-presidency/

40.

Williamson

Skocpol

Coggin

(2011). The tea party and the remaking of Republican conservatism. Perspectives on Politics, 9(1), 25–43.

41.

Wilson

A. R.

Burack

(2012). ‘Where Liberty Reigns and God is Supreme’: The Christian Right and the Tea Party Movement. New Political Science, 34(2), 172–190.

42.

Wilson

(2014, November 5). Republican sweep extends to state level. The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/11/05/republican-sweep-extends-to-state-level/

43.

Zernike

(2010). Boiling mad: Inside tea party America. Times Books.

44.

Zernike

Thee-Brenan

(2010, April 14). Poll finds tea party backers wealthier and more educated. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/us/politics/15poll.html?_r=0

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.17 MB

0.58 MB

Growing Tea With Subnational Roots: Tea Party Affiliation,Factionalism,and GOP Politics in State Legislatures

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References

Supplementary Material