Ted Cruz remains a conservative favorite in 2016. In 2012, the establishment backed his Senate opponent in Texas, then Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. The conservative grassroots backed Cruz and pushed him over the finish line. Cruz has since remained a favorite of the grassroots with a continually antagonist relationship with the Republican establishment.
In 2010, Rand Paul, before Cruz, was a grassroots favorite. The Republican Establishment backed his rival, Trey Grayson. Paul rallied a coalition of conservative grassroots and Ron Paul acolytes to trounce Grayson and win the Kentucky Senate seat. Since then, Paul has wobbled between maintaining grassroots support and developing establishment support. In 2014, for example, he backed Mitch McConnell for re-election and has taken an occasional aggressive position to contrast himself from Cruz.
Marco Rubio is the original Tea Party candidate. His candidacy united the grassroots against the leadership and he won. The Washington crowd convinced themselves he could not win, but the grassroots proved they could pick a winner. Rubio was the first.
In the same year Rand Paul won, the man who started the major revolt between grassroots activists and party leaders ran. It was the Rubio race that really exposed the divide between the base and the leadership. The leadership backed then Florida Governor Charlie Crist. The grassroots, led by former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, allied with Marco Rubio. Activists began urging a boycott of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Washington group that helps the GOP take the Senate....
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