Mainstream establishment Republicans claimed a victory over tea party conservatives after an Alabama congressional special runoff election Tuesday – a potential omen for 2014 midterm elections to come.
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Former state senator Bradley Byrne beat real-estate developer and “Ted Cruz congressman” hopeful Dean Young by 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent in the runoff for the Mobile-area 1st District seat formerly held by Republican Rep. Jo Bonner.
A special general election on Dec. 17 will hand Byrne the seat Bonner occupied for six terms until his August retirement over likely weak opposition from Democrats. Bonner endorsed Byrne over Young, who tried to unseat the former congressman in 2012.
Young’s grassroots-style tea-party-backed campaign sported a host of hard-right talking points popular since the Republican House takeover in 2010 including repealing Obamacare, condemning Speaker John Boehner and touting the Obama birther argument.
Popular until the recent government shutdown championed by Texas tea-party favorite Sen. Ted Cruz, which Young supported and who Young likened himself to repeatedly throughout his campaign.
Businesses hurt by massive subsidy, incentive, and economic-stimulating federal budget cuts championed by tea-party-backed representatives over the last three years have led to a growing expectation the faction would see primary challenges after bleeding House seats in the 2012 elections.
The recent government shutdown which cost the economy about $24 billion – and Republicans a major loss of public support – seems to have pushed that expectation into reality with pro-business groups across the country putting their weight behind more establishment-Republican aligned conservatives gearing up for primary challenges to tea partiers in 2014.
Alabama may serve as the first early example with groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Ending Spending PAC financed by TD Ameritrade – which was the fourth largest supporter of Cruz’s Senate campaign – putting their money behind Byrne.
Even House leaders long favored by tea-party representatives like Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy and Majority Leader Eric Cantor bankrolled the Byrne campaign – a likely response to the growing trouble House leadership has faced in securing votes and steering an increasingly disjointed, disobedient tea party freshman caucus since 2010.
Byrne outraised Young by more than double thanks to $200,000 from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce alone, which said it plans to support more pro-business primaries against tea party held seats and challengers in 2014.
“Our support will be predicated on where the candidates stand on a broad range of issues that are important to the business community,” Chamber of Commerce Spokeswoman Blair Latoff Holmes said in Politico Tuesday. “We do see an increasing need to stand up early for candidates that understand the principles of free enterprise and are willing to address the biggest issues impacting our economy, like jobs and growth.”
Pro-business groups have already begun lining up behind more traditional Republicans in primary races with tea-party candidates in Michigan, Idaho, and Pennsylvania, with talk of more springing up in the wake of the shutdown and beginning of the midterm election campaign season.
Related articles
- Byrne Wins Republican Runoff in Alabama House Race (nytimes.com)
- Business-backed Byrne wins in Ala. (politico.com)
- 5 things we learned from Election Night (cnn.com)