Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on May 18, 2010

Rand Paul wins Kentucky Republican Senate nomination

This news is just breaking from my NYT email alert…

Rand Paul Wins Republican Senate Nomination in Kentucky

Rand Paul, one of the early leaders of the Tea Party movement, won the Republican nomination for Senate in Kentucky on Tuesday night, delivering a powerful blow to the party’s establishment and offering the clearest evidence yet of the strength of the anti-government sentiment simmering at the grass-roots level.

Mr. Paul, the son of Representative Ron Paul of Texas, easily defeated Trey Grayson, the secretary of state from Kentucky.
Voters turned against Mr. Grayson even though he had the support of the state’s best-known political leader – Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader.

Paul was endorsed several months ago by former Gov. Sarah Palin. Not what the GOP expected…

From HotAir:

Political novice Rand Paul rode support from tea party activists to victory in Kentucky’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday night, delivering a jolt to the GOP establishment and providing fresh evidence of widespread voter discontent in a turbulent midterm election season.

Paul had 59 percent of the vote—with returns counted from 29 percent of the precincts—to 37 percent for Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who had been recruited to run by the state’s dominant Republican, U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

From Breitbart, Paul wins GOP Kentucky nod; tea party helps:

The Kentucky Senate seat is one of 10 or more that appear likely to remain competitive until Election Day, and one that Republicans can ill afford to lose if they are to make a serious run at challenging the Democratic majority. The seat is now held by Sen. Jim Bunning, but McConnell was so concerned about Bunning’s ability to win a new term that he muscled the two-term lawmaker to the sidelines and recruited Grayson to run.

Paul, the son of Rep. Ron Paul, a former GOP presidential contender, entered the race with other ideas.

The far-flung races took place a little less than five months before midterm elections in which Republicans will challenge Democrats for control of both houses of Congress. President Barack Obama backed incumbents in his party’s races, but despite the stakes for his legislative agenda the White House insisted he was not following the results very closely.

Whatever the fate of the parties, public opinion polls—and the defeat of two veteran lawmakers in earlier contests—already had turned the campaign into a year of living dangerously for incumbents.

High unemployment, an economy just now emerging from the worst recession in generations and Congress’ decision to bail out Wall Street giants in 2008 all added to voters’ unease, polls said. In a survey released shortly before the polls closed, ABC said voter expectations for the economy had turned optimistic for the first time in six years. At that, only 33 percent of those polled said so in the network’s polling, compared with 29 percent saying the opposite.

More primary updates (“Benedict Arnold” Specter lost!) from Gateway Pundit: Tuesday Primaries- Rand Paul Takes Kentucky – Sestak Beats Specter – Burns Concedes:

Political novice Rand Paul rode support from tea party activists to a rout in Kentucky’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday night, jolting the GOP establishment. Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter lost his struggle for political survival in Pennsylvania, a five-term incumbent offering experience to voters clamoring for change.

UPDATE, August 10, 2010… reported by Gateway Pundit: Disgusting. Lib Candidate Now Sending Supporters to Rand Paul Rallies to Act Like Racists (Video)

Categories: Conservatism, Government, Social and Political Climate
Tags: 2010, 2010 election, Arlen Specter election results, conservative, election, election results Kentucky, GOP, Kentucky, Pennsylvania election results, political, politics, primary, Rand Paul, Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter, Senate, tea parties, tea party