Tea Party Movement Regroups After Election Losses, Looks Ahead to 2014 Midterm Elections

The Tea Party is looking to regroup, after stinging defeats in this year's election.

Representative Allen West of Florida recently conceded defeat in his reelection bid, after vowing to fight for recount in what wasn't a particularly close race. He served only a single term in the House, swept in by the tide of anti-Obama sentiment that gripped the conservatives of the country during the midterm elections in 2010.

Michele Bachmann, the only candidate in the Republican primaries to declare herself a member of the Tea Party, barely survived her reelection bid, winning by only about 1 point in her very conservative gerrymandered district.

Richard Mourdock, a Tea Party-backed candidate whose Senate campaign in Indiana was derailed by his comments that conception through rape was something "God intended to happen," also lost. Mourdock beat out longtime Republican Senator Dick Lugar for the nomination, so his loss cost the Republicans a seat in the Senate.

But the Tea Party is undeterred. They are considering mounting challenges to other more moderate Republicans in 2010, including Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who often brokers deals with Democrats, Senator Lamar Alexander in Tennessee and Senator Saxby Chambliss in Georgia.

Most Tea Partiers blame their losses on Mitt Romney, who they say was a lackluster candidate whose positions weren't conservative enough to energize the base.

While the mainstream of the Republican party is pointing at demographic realities as reasons to moderate their positions on issues like immigration reform and abortion, the Tea Party is doubling down on their platform of fiscal austerity and small government.

About 30 percent of voters consider themselves members of the Tea Party, a huge constituency compared to other interest groups.

Republicans, and by extension, the Tea Party, will likely take back more seats in Congress in the 2014 midterm elections, simply by virtue of not holding the presidency.

Democratic voters also tend to turn out less for elections that don't involve selecting a president, so two years from now might the perfect opportunity for the Tea Party to cement itself as a force in American politics for a generation to come.