Not quite true. If you listen to Brat himself he gives credit for his win to the TEA party people who helped him. They were local not national. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath. The TEA Party (local organizations) and its people are fantastic grassroots. The national tea party is for the most part a money stealing joke.
Levin and Ingraham helped but they did not knock on doors or get people out of their houses to vote, the local TEA party people did.
a lot of folks seem to be confused about an important fact.
there is no such thing as THE “national tea party”.
‘tea party’ is an umbrella term used for hundreds of local grassroots conservative groups.
as has been pointed out in this thread, there are several organizations which call themselves “tea party” that do fundraising on a national basis. whether they do anything other than raise money or any activity that can be called politically effective is certainly open for debate.
I still consider myself more of a tea party person than a republican, but that said, they have started to become an organization with ranks, as well, and as far as I can tell, they are not doing as much good as they once did. I’m not knocking the TP locally. It is made up of you and I. However, the TP nationally has backed some real losers, that in the long run have been less than stellar. They need to vet people better, as I stated in other comments earlier.