National Tea Party group weighs jumping in N.H. Senate race to support Scott Brown
FreedomWorks, the group that helped launch the Tea Party, is weighing the possibility of supporting Scott Brown in his campaign for the U.S. Senate seat held by Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen.
Bowing to political realities, the organization that made its name by taking on Republican incumbents and establishment favorites is now considering whether to support Republican candidates they previously opposed.
“We did not endorse him in Massachusetts because I didn’t think it would help,“ FreedomWork President Matt Kibbe told Politico. "I definitely wanted him to win, and a lot of our activists worked for him, but FreedomWorks’ brand may or may not help — New Hampshire’s different obviously than Massachusetts. So I’m not philosophically opposed to that, but we’ll see,” he said.
Brown earned a middling lifetime score of 42% from FreedomWorks for his three years in the Senate. His 2012 rating dropped to 15% as he battled Democrat Elizabeth Warren in his unsuccessful re-election bid. The group judged Brown cast "anti-freedom” votes on 11 of the 13 votes they scored in 2012.
Many local Tea Party groups and conservative activists have already rejected Brown’s candidacy. Earlier this year, Jane Aitken of the New Hampshire Tea Party Coalition told Patch she’ll never vote for Brown. “I have not made a decision yet about for whom I would vote amongst the legitimate candidates,” she said, “but I can tell you it would never be Scott Brown.”