Tea Party Caucus

Tea Party Caucus
ChairmanMichele Bachmann (2010–2015)
Tim Huelskamp (2015–2017)
FounderMichele Bachmann
(MN-6)
FoundedJuly 19, 2010; 14 years ago (2010-07-19)
Dissolved2016 (de facto)
Succeeded byFreedom Caucus (de facto, not legal successor)
Ideology
Political positionRight-wing[9] to far-right[10]
National affiliationRepublican Party
Seats in the Senate
12 / 100
Seats in House Republican Caucus
19 / 199
Seats in the House
19 / 435
Website
Official website

The Tea Party Caucus (TPC) was a congressional caucus of the Republican Party in the United States House of Representatives, consisting of its most conservative members.[11][12] It was founded in July 2010 by Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in coordination with the Tea Party movement the year following the movement's 2009 creation. Bachmann served as the Caucus's first chair.[13]

The idea of a Tea Party Caucus originated from Rand Paul (KY) when he was campaigning for the U.S. Senate in 2010.[14] The Caucus was approved as an official congressional member organization by the House Administration Committee on July 19, 2010,[15] and held its first meeting and public event, a press conference on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, on July 21.[16] A similar informal Caucus was formed in the Senate by four Senators on January 27, 2011.[2][note 1] From July 2012 to April 2013 the Tea Party Caucus neither met nor posted news on its webpage, leading observers to describe it as "dead," "inactive," and "defunct."[17][18] In April 2013, Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina filed paperwork to create a new Tea Party Caucus, but found that Bachmann intended to continue the caucus, starting with an event on April 25, 2013.[19]

The Caucus was reconstituted in the 114th Congress in January 2015.[20] Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas became the chair in February 2015.[21] Huelskamp lost party primary election in 2016 and since then, the Caucus has remained inactive, with no official announcement of its dissolution. Most of Tea Party Caucus members have joined the far-right[22] Freedom Caucus.[23] Although the Tea Party is not a party in the classic sense of the word, research has shown that members of the Tea Party Caucus voted like a third party in Congress.[24]

A largely right-wing populist faction of the Republican Party,[25][26] the Tea Party Caucus promoted tax cuts,[27][28] cuts in non-defense spending and adherence to the movement's interpretation of the Constitution. The caucus's members have also advocated socially conservative legislation, supported the right to keep and bear arms, and promoted limited government.[29] The Caucus also included far-right members, like Bachmann.[30]

  1. ^ Jared A. Goldstein (2011). "The Tea Party Movement and the Perils of Popular Originalism" (PDF). Roger Williams University.
  2. ^ a b Herszenhorn, David M. (January 27, 2011). "Senate Tea Party Caucus Holds First Meeting". New York Times.
  3. ^ Bryan T. Gervais; Irwin L. Morris (March 2012). "Reading the Tea Leaves: Understanding Tea Party Caucus Membership in the US House of Representatives". PS: Political Science & Politics. 45 (2): 245–250. doi:10.1017/S1049096511002058. S2CID 154605233.
  4. ^ "Brewing tensions between the Tea Party and GOP". Reuters. March 18, 2010.
  5. ^ "The Tea Party's religious roots exposed". The Guardian. October 12, 2010.
  6. ^ "The Tea Party and Religion". Pew Research Center. February 23, 2011.
  7. ^ [2][3][4][5][6]
  8. ^ Vanessa Williamson; Theda Skocpol; John Coggin (March 2011). "The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism". Perspectives on Politics. 9: 25–43. doi:10.1017/S153759271000407X. S2CID 233315323.
  9. ^ G. Bruce Doern; Allan M. Maslove; Michael J. Prince, eds. (April 19, 2013). Canadian Public Budgeting in the Age of Crises: Shifting Budgetary Domains and Temporal Budgeting. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. p. 71. ISBN 9781317755098. The issue was forced by a group of right-wing Republicans (the Tea Party caucus) who used their leverage after the 2010 Congressional election to turn this usually routine procedure into a major confrontation in the summer of 2011 over the budget and the future role that the US government might play in the econ-omy.
  10. ^ "Tea Party goes cold as US voters reject the far right". The Conversation. November 8, 2012. Retrieved October 15, 2017.
  11. ^ Homan, Patrick; Lantis, Jeffrey S. (2020). The battle for U.S. foreign policy: congress, parties, and factions in the 21st century. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 92. ISBN 978-3-030-30171-2.
  12. ^ Smith, Steven S.; Roberts, Jason M.; Wielen, Ryan J. Vander; Roberts, Jason M.; Wielen, Ryan J. Vander (2015). The American Congress (9 ed.). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-107-57178-5.
  13. ^ Sherman, Jake (July 16, 2010). "Bachmann forms Tea Party Caucus". Politico. Retrieved August 4, 2010.
  14. ^ Barr, Andy (July 14, 2010). "Paul would form 'tea party caucus'". POLITICO. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  15. ^ Condon, Stephanie (July 19, 2010). "Bachmann's Tea Party Caucus Approved". CBS News. Retrieved August 4, 2010.
  16. ^ Zdechlik, Mark (July 21, 2010). "Bachmann gathers Tea Party Caucus for first time". Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved August 4, 2010.
  17. ^ Weigel, Dave (March 20, 2013). "The Tea Party Caucus is Dead and That's OK". Slate. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
  18. ^ Newhauser, Daniel (March 20, 2013). "What Happened to the Tea Party Caucus?". Roll Call. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
  19. ^ Strong, Jonathan (April 24, 2013). "Tea Party Caucus to Relaunch With Event Thursday". The Hill. Retrieved August 19, 2014.
  20. ^ "Michele Bachmann is Gone, But the Tea Party Caucus Lives On". Bloomberg. January 14, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  21. ^ "New Tea Party Caucus Chairman". Roll Call. February 26, 2015. Retrieved July 22, 2015.
  22. ^ McKay, David H. (2022). American politics and society (10 ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Blackwell. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-119-57836-9.
  23. ^ Nelson, Candice J.; Thurber, James A.; Dulio, David A. (2023). Campaigns and Elections American Style: The Changing Landscape of Political Campaigns (1 ed.). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781000937763. In the House of Representatives, the Tea Party caucus had morphed into the Freedom Caucus as Donald Trump took over the Republican Party.
  24. ^ Ragusa, Jordan; Gaspar, Anthony (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. doi:10.1177/1065912916640901. S2CID 156591086.
  25. ^ McNaught, Mark Bennett, ed. (2012). Reflections on conservative politics in the United Kingdom and the United States: still soul mates?. Lanham: Lexington Books. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-7391-7303-9.
  26. ^ Gold, David M. (2015). The Great Tea Party in the Old Northwest: State Constitutional Conventions, 1847-1851. Quid Pro Books. ISBN 9781610272957.
  27. ^ "End of an era? Tea party class of House Republicans fades". AP News. June 3, 2018. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  28. ^ Goldfarb, Zachary A. (May 18, 2023). "Spending cuts represent moment of truth for tea party". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved September 23, 2023.
  29. ^ Campbell, John L. (2023). Institutions under siege: Donald Trump's attack on the deep state. Cambridge New York, NY Port Melbourne New Delhi Singapore: Cambridge University Press. p. 79. ISBN 978-1-009-17018-5.
  30. ^ Ford, Lynne (2021). Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics (3 ed.). Infobase Holdings, Inc. p. 51. ISBN 9781646938216.


Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).