Will Tea Party, GOP establishment be 'mending fences' to win Senate in November?

FILE: Nov. 5, 2013: A Tea Party member at a GOP event in Richmond, Va.(REUTERS)

After a long, unapologetic effort to defeat Tea Party and other so-called unelectable candidates in GOP primaries, the Washington establishment will likely need Tea Party voters in November to help swing several tight Senate races and win control of the upper chamber.

Republicans appear poised to win three of the net total six seats required to take the Senate. But they are locked in six other, too-close-to call contests in their effort to win the remaining three seats.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee on Friday dismissed the notion that party voters are not united behind their candidates.

Can you point to a race ? Its a false narrative, said group spokeswoman Brook Hougsen, who cited a recent George Washington University survey that shows Republicans with a 16-point advantage over Democrats (52-to-36 percent) in a generic poll on competitive Senate races.

Kevin Broughton, spokesman for the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, a political action committee, singled out a few races, particularly in Kansas and Mississippi, but suggested his troops will rally for the general election.

While Tea Party people and conservative activists might have a bad taste in their mouth, the goal is to keep Barack Obama from making more bad appointments to the federal appeals courts, he said. And the way you stop that is to take away (Nevada Sen.) Harry Reids Democratic majority and his nuclear option.

Broughton said they will focus on such grassroots efforts as get-out-the-vote, instead of buying TV or other media spots.

The establishment and its deep-pocket supporters made clear from the start of the 2014 election cycle that their goal was to field a full squad of electable candidates, thus avoiding past mistakes, and to weed out anybody who might get elected and undermine their legislative agenda.

Our job is to win a GOP majority, NRSC strategist Brad Dayspring said in terse November 2013 tweet.

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Will Tea Party, GOP establishment be 'mending fences' to win Senate in November?