Tea Party Support May Put GOP over the Top in 'The Hold Your Nose Election of 2014'

From Kansas to Kentucky, North Carolina to Alaska, Tea Party supporters who saw their endorsed candidates lose to establishment Republicans in U.S. Senate primaries are holding their noses as they prepare to put endangered Republican candidates over the top with their votes in closely fought U.S. Senate races.

Control of the U.S. Senate hangs in the balance.

Republicans must pick up 6 seats to obtain a 51 seat majority. On Friday, Real Clear Politics estimated that if the election were held today, Republicans would hold 47 seats, Democrats 45, with 8 seats up for grabs on Tuesday tossups that either party could take on election night.

Several of these tossup states went through bitter Republican primaries in which the establishment candidate defeated the Tea Party-endorsed candidate. While support for the establishment victors by the vanquished Tea Party primary opponents is a mixed bag, recent endorsements by some former intra-party foes, combined with pragmatic decision making in the minds of Tea Party voters around the country, may bring enough reluctant voters to the polls for Republican candidates to ease the party into a Senate majority.

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