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Era X · 2009–2015

Tea Party and Conservative Grassroots

In opposition to the Obama administration, a grassroots revolt against spending, bailouts and the Affordable Care Act won Republicans the House and then the Senate, and turned the party’s own leadership into a target.

Overview

Barack Obama’s election in 2008 left Republicans in the minority in both houses of Congress and divided over the Bush years. The response that followed came largely from outside the party’s leadership. On February 19, 2009, CNBC commentator Rick Santelli, speaking from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, denounced a plan to help homeowners facing foreclosure and proposed a Chicago tea party in protest. Within weeks, local groups taking the Tea Party name—after the Boston protest of 1773 against taxation without representation—organized rallies on Tax Day, April 15, 2009, and a large Taxpayer March on Washington that September. National organizations such as FreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity and Tea Party Express amplified the local groups.

The movement’s demands were fiscal and constitutional: opposition to the 2009 stimulus, to bailouts and above all to the Affordable Care Act, along with calls for lower spending, lower taxes and fidelity to the Constitution’s limits on federal power. No House Republican voted for the $787 billion stimulus, and the Affordable Care Act passed in March 2010 without a Republican vote in either chamber. Scott Brown’s January 2010 victory in the Massachusetts special election for Edward Kennedy’s Senate seat previewed the backlash, and that November Republicans gained 63 House seats—the largest midterm gain by either party since 1938—and six Senate seats. The same year, in McDonald v. Chicago, the Supreme Court applied the Second Amendment to the states.

The new House majority under Speaker John Boehner forced repeated confrontations over spending. The 2011 debt-limit standoff produced the Budget Control Act, whose caps and automatic “sequestration” cuts restrained discretionary spending, but also the first-ever downgrade of the U.S. credit rating by Standard & Poor’s. After Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election, the Republican National Committee’s Growth and Opportunity Project urged the party to reach out to Hispanic, Black, Asian American, young and female voters and to embrace comprehensive immigration reform; many grassroots conservatives rejected that advice. Tensions peaked in 2013, with revelations that the IRS had singled out applications from Tea Party and other groups for extra scrutiny, and with a 16-day government shutdown in October after a campaign led by Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee to defund the Affordable Care Act.

The insurgency reshaped the party from within. Tea Party–backed candidates such as Marco Rubio, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz won Senate seats, while others defeated establishment favorites in primaries only to lose winnable general elections. In June 2014 House Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his primary to economics professor David Brat; that November Republicans gained nine Senate seats and the majority, along with their largest House majority since the 1920s. In 2015 hard-line conservatives formed the House Freedom Caucus, and in September Speaker Boehner announced his resignation. Pew Research Center surveys showed Republican agreement with the Tea Party falling from 48 percent in March 2010 to 33 percent by April 2014, but the movement’s distrust of party leaders and of Washington outlasted its name, and many observers see it as a precursor to the politics of 2016.

Timeline

  1. Stimulus signed without House Republican votes

    President Obama signs the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. No House Republican voted for it and only three Senate Republicans did, as opposition to federal spending became the unifying theme of the new minority.

    Historical Record

  2. Santelli’s broadcast from the trading floor

    On CNBC, commentator Rick Santelli attacks the administration’s plan to help homeowners facing foreclosure and proposes a Chicago tea party in protest. The clip spreads widely online and gives a name to a growing protest movement.

    Historical Record

  3. Tax Day Tea Parties

    Hundreds of local rallies against taxes, spending and bailouts take place across the country on the federal income-tax filing deadline, many organized by first-time activists through social media.

    Historical Record

  4. Taxpayer March on Washington

    Tens of thousands of protesters—estimates varied widely—march to the Capitol to oppose the health-care legislation then moving through Congress, federal spending and the growing national debt.

    Historical Record

  5. Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts

    Republican state senator Scott Brown wins the special election for the Senate seat long held by Edward Kennedy, campaigning against the health-care bill and ending the Democrats’ 60-vote Senate supermajority.

    Historical Record

  6. The Affordable Care Act becomes law

    Obama signs the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which passed without a Republican vote in either chamber. Repealing it became the central promise of the 2010 Republican campaign.

    Historical Record

  7. McDonald v. Chicago

    The Supreme Court holds, 5–4, that the individual right to keep and bear arms recognized in Heller applies to state and local governments through the Fourteenth Amendment, and strikes down Chicago’s handgun ban.

    Primary Source

  8. The debt-ceiling standoff ends in the Budget Control Act

    After House Republicans insisted that any increase in the debt limit be matched by spending cuts, Congress caps discretionary spending and creates a special committee whose failure later triggered automatic across-the-board cuts, known as sequestration. Days later Standard & Poor’s lowered the U.S. credit rating for the first time.

    Historical Record

  9. NFIB v. Sebelius

    Chief Justice John Roberts joins the Court’s four liberal justices to uphold the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate as a tax, while seven justices hold that threatening states with the loss of existing Medicaid funds unless they expanded the program was unconstitutionally coercive. Many conservatives were bitterly disappointed.

    Primary Source

  10. The RNC’s “autopsy”

    The Republican National Committee’s Growth and Opportunity Project, commissioned after the 2012 defeat, urges the party to broaden its appeal to minority, young and female voters, to “embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform,” and to hold fewer primary debates and an earlier convention.

    Official GOP PositionRepublican National Committee

  11. IRS scrutiny of Tea Party groups confirmed

    The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration reports that from 2010 to 2012 the IRS used inappropriate criteria, including names such as “Tea Party” and “Patriots,” to select applications for tax-exempt status for extra review, delaying some for years.

    Historical Record

  12. The Senate passes the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill

    A bipartisan bill pairing border-security spending with a path to citizenship for many unauthorized immigrants passes the Senate 68–32, with 14 Republican votes. Amid grassroots opposition, the House never takes it up.

    Historical Record

  13. Government shutdown over the Affordable Care Act

    After the House ties government funding to defunding or delaying the health-care law, a 16-day partial shutdown follows. It ends with a bill, passed 81–18 in the Senate and 285–144 in the House, that leaves the law largely intact.

    Historical Record

  14. Cantor loses his primary

    House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia loses the Republican primary to economics professor David Brat, who attacked him over immigration and his ties to business interests—the first primary defeat of a sitting House majority leader since the post was created.

    Historical Record

  15. The House Freedom Caucus forms

    A group of conservative House members, with Jim Jordan of Ohio as founding chairman, forms the Freedom Caucus to push the Republican leadership toward harder-line positions on spending and House procedure.

    Historical Record

  16. Boehner announces his resignation

    Two months after Freedom Caucus member Mark Meadows filed a motion to vacate the chair, Speaker John Boehner announces that he will leave Congress. Paul Ryan is elected Speaker on October 29.

    Historical Record

People

  • Speaker of the House, 2011–2015

    John Boehner

    Led the 2011 debt-limit negotiations and resigned under pressure from the party’s hard-liners.

  • Senate Republican Leader from 2007; Majority Leader, 2015–2021

    Mitch McConnell

    Held Senate Republicans together in opposition to the stimulus and the Affordable Care Act.

  • Chairman of the House Budget Committee, 2011–2015; 2012 vice-presidential nominee; Speaker, 2015–2019

    Paul Ryan

    His “Path to Prosperity” budgets proposed turning Medicare into a system of premium support for future retirees.

  • Governor of Massachusetts, 2003–2007; 2012 presidential nominee

    Mitt Romney

  • U.S. Senator from Florida from 2011

    Marco Rubio

    Elected in 2010 after Tea Party support drove Governor Charlie Crist out of the Republican primary; later a member of the bipartisan “Gang of Eight.”

  • U.S. Senator from Texas from 2013

    Ted Cruz

    Led the 2013 effort to defund the Affordable Care Act, including a Senate floor speech of more than 21 hours.

  • Governor of Alaska, 2006–2009; 2008 vice-presidential nominee

    Sarah Palin

    Keynote speaker at the first National Tea Party Convention in 2010 and an influential endorser of insurgent candidates.

  • U.S. Representative from Minnesota, 2007–2015

    Michele Bachmann

    Founded the House Tea Party Caucus in 2010.

  • House Majority Leader, 2011–2014

    Eric Cantor

    His 2014 primary defeat signaled the strength of the anti-establishment mood.

  • U.S. Representative from Ohio from 2007

    Jim Jordan

    Founding chairman of the House Freedom Caucus.

Documents

Elections

YearElectionResultElectoral votes
20102010 Midterm ElectionsIn the largest midterm gain by either party since 1938, Republicans won the House majority. Tea Party–backed Senate candidates such as Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Mike Lee won, while nominees in Delaware, Nevada and Colorado lost races many analysts considered winnable.Republicans gain 63 House seats and six Senate seats—
2012Election of 2012Obama won 51.1 percent of the popular vote to Romney’s 47.2 percent. Republicans kept the House but lost Senate seats, including races in Missouri and Indiana where their nominees were damaged by controversial remarks.Barack Obama (D) defeats Mitt Romney (R)332 of 538
20142014 Midterm ElectionsRepublicans gained nine Senate seats for a 54-seat majority and expanded their House majority to 247 seats, the largest since the 71st Congress elected in 1928. Mitch McConnell became Majority Leader.Republicans win the Senate—

Policies

  • 2009–2015

    Opposition to the Affordable Care Act

    Republicans opposed the health-care law unanimously in both chambers, the House voted dozens of times to repeal or change it, and legal challenges reached the Supreme Court in NFIB v. Sebelius (2012) and King v. Burwell (2015), which upheld the law’s subsidies in states using the federal exchange.

    Historical Record

  • 2010

    A Pledge to America

    House Republicans’ 2010 agenda promised to cut discretionary spending, repeal and replace the health-care law, make the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent, and require that every bill cite its constitutional authority.

    Official GOP PositionHouse Republican Conference

  • 2011

    Earmark moratorium

    With the new majority, House Republicans banned earmarks—spending directed by individual members to particular projects—and the Senate followed, a response to grassroots criticism of spending practices during the Bush years.

    Historical Record

  • 2011–2013

    Spending caps and sequestration

    The Budget Control Act capped discretionary appropriations for a decade and, after a special committee failed to agree on further savings, triggered automatic cuts that took effect in March 2013. Later bipartisan budget deals, beginning with the Ryan–Murray agreement of December 2013, eased the caps.

    Historical Record

  • 2013

    The fiscal-cliff agreement

    The American Taxpayer Relief Act, passed on January 1, 2013, made most of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts permanent while raising the top rate for the highest earners. Most House Republicans voted against it, a sign of the growing divide between party leaders and the rank and file.

    Historical Record

  • 2012

    The 2012 Republican platform

    Titled “We Believe in America,” the platform called for repealing the Affordable Care Act, a balanced-budget amendment, lower taxes and reduced regulation, and opposed amnesty for unauthorized immigrants.

    Official GOP Position2012 Republican Platform

Speeches

  • January 5, 2011

    Remarks on Election as Speaker

    John Boehner

    Taking the gavel from Nancy Pelosi at the start of the 112th Congress, Boehner promised a more open House and a focus on cutting spending.

    Primary Source

  • August 30, 2012

    Address Accepting the Presidential Nomination

    Mitt Romney

    In Tampa, Romney offered his business experience and a plan for job creation as an answer to a slow recovery.

    Primary Source

  • September 24–25, 2013

    Senate Floor Speech on Funding the Affordable Care Act

    Ted Cruz

    Cruz held the floor for more than 21 hours to oppose funding the health-care law, a week before the shutdown began; the speech is printed in the Congressional Record.

    Primary Source

  • October 29, 2015

    Remarks on Election as Speaker

    Paul Ryan

    Elected after Boehner’s resignation, Ryan acknowledged that the House was not working and promised changes in how it did its business.

    Primary Source

Criticism & Debate

A historical institution earns trust by recording disagreement. It does not rewrite history around what a movement believes today. Each perspective below is stated in terms its own proponents would recognize.

Opposing View / Debate

Did the Tea Party strengthen the Republican Party or weaken it?

Tea Party energy produced the 2010 landslide and a new generation of conservative officeholders, but insurgent primaries also cost Republicans Senate seats and deepened distrust between the party’s leaders and its voters.

Grassroots conservatives

Tea Party activists argued that Republican incumbents had presided over the spending, earmarks and bailouts of the Bush years, and that only primary challenges and grassroots pressure could hold them to their principles. They point to the 2010 and 2014 results and to senators such as Rubio, Paul, Lee and Cruz as proof.

Party leaders and strategists

Leaders and strategists, including allies of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, argued that nominees in Delaware and Nevada in 2010 and in Indiana and Missouri in 2012 lost winnable races, costing the party the Senate majority for years, and that disciplined candidate selection was essential.

Scholars of the movement

Researchers described a movement that combined thousands of local volunteer groups with national advocacy organizations and conservative media, and whose members were older, more conservative and more Republican than the public as a whole—less a third party than an insurgency within the GOP.

Sources

  1. Tea Party support falls among Republicans · Pew Research Center
Opposing View / Debate

Were shutdown and debt-ceiling confrontations legitimate tactics?

House Republicans used must-pass legislation as leverage in the 2011 debt-limit standoff and the 2013 shutdown. The first produced the Budget Control Act and a credit-rating downgrade; the second ended after 16 days without changes to the health-care law beyond an income-verification provision.

Supporters

Supporters, including Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee and groups such as Heritage Action, argued that the power of the purse is the House’s central constitutional check, that the health-care law was unpopular and harmful, and that the 2011 fight produced real spending restraint.

Republican critics

Many Republicans, including Senator John McCain and much of the House leadership, argued that the defund strategy could not succeed while Obama held the veto and Democrats held the Senate, and that shutdowns hurt federal workers, the economy and the party’s standing.

Democrats

Democrats argued that threatening default or shutdown to reverse an enacted law was an illegitimate form of hostage-taking that endangered the nation’s credit.

Opposing View / Debate

Should the party have followed its 2013 “autopsy”?

After 2012 the RNC’s Growth and Opportunity Project argued that the party must broaden its appeal and support comprehensive immigration reform. The Senate passed a bipartisan immigration bill in June 2013, but the House did not act, and the party’s next nominee campaigned on the opposite course.

The autopsy’s authors and party leaders

Supporters of the report warned that the country’s changing demographics would leave a party dependent on older white voters unable to win national majorities, and that tone and immigration policy were driving away Hispanic and younger voters.

Populist critics

Critics argued that Romney had lost because millions of working-class voters stayed home, that amnesty would betray the party’s base and depress wages, and that the party should speak to Americans who felt left behind by trade and immigration. That argument anticipated the 2016 campaign.

The historical record

The RNC adopted some of the report’s procedural recommendations, including an earlier national convention, while its central policy advice on immigration was rejected. In 2016 Republicans won the presidency on a restrictionist platform, and the party’s share of the Hispanic vote later rose—results each side has cited.

Sources

  1. Growth and Opportunity Project (2013) · Republican National Committee; copy at the Internet Archive
Opposing View / Debate

Was the IRS scrutiny of Tea Party groups political targeting?

In 2013 the Treasury inspector general found that the IRS had used inappropriate criteria, including the words “Tea Party” and “Patriots,” to flag applications for tax-exempt status, and had delayed many for years. Lois Lerner, director of the IRS’s exempt-organizations division, apologized and later declined to testify before Congress, citing her Fifth Amendment rights.

Tea Party groups and Republicans

Affected groups and Republican investigators argued that the scrutiny silenced conservative organizations during the 2010 and 2012 elections and reflected political bias within the agency. In 2017 the Justice Department settled lawsuits by affected groups, and the IRS formally apologized.

IRS officials and many Democrats

Officials and many Democrats described the problem as mismanagement by an overwhelmed unit rather than a directed political campaign, noting that in 2015 the Justice Department closed its investigation without filing criminal charges.

Later findings

A 2017 inspector general review, citing a bipartisan Senate Finance Committee investigation, noted that most of the applications set aside for heightened scrutiny came from Tea Party and conservative groups, but that the IRS had also flagged some left-leaning applicants, some of which also experienced lengthy delays.

Sources

  1. Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review · Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (Oversight.gov)

Images

Archival image collections. Rights are checked item by item before anything is reproduced on this site.

Sources

  1. Party Divisions of the House of Representatives · Office of the Historian, U.S. House of Representatives
  2. Tea Party support falls among Republicans · Pew Research Center
  3. Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review · Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (Oversight.gov)
  4. Growth and Opportunity Project (2013) · Republican National Committee; copy at the Internet Archive
  5. Budget Control Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-25) · GovInfo, U.S. Government Publishing Office
  6. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Public Law 111-148) · GovInfo, U.S. Government Publishing Office
  7. McDonald v. Chicago · Oyez
  8. 2012 Presidential Election · The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara

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