Tea Party stirs up Republicans with shock victory over veteran senator

US SENATOR Richard Lugar, a 35-year Senate veteran and leading foreign policy voice, has been soundly defeated in the Indiana Republican primary by a Tea Party-backed rival, jolting the American political establishment and proving that the pressure group still has power in a presidential election year.

Mr Lugar, 80, was the first Senate incumbent to lose this year, and his defeat on Tuesday night showed that the anti-Washington, small government Tea Party movement is alive and well.

The veteran senator lost to Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock by more than 20 percentage points.

“Lugar’s defeat is a wake-up call from the Tea Party to the Republican establishment,” said Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist. “It will make them think about how to proceed, not just in what they say but how they vote in the run-up the [November] election.”

In a graceful concession speech, Mr Lugar said he would use the remainder of his term to try to achieve some results in a gridlocked Congress.

“We are experiencing deep political divisions in our society right now,” he said. “These divisions have stalemated progress in critical areas.”

The outcome gives Democrats an unexpected opportunity to win a Republican-held seat in November’s elections. Democrats are clinging to a 53-47 advantage in the US Senate, but have many more incumbents standing for re-election than Republicans.

Polls had shown that if Mr Lugar won the primary, he would easily be re-elected in November. With Mr Mourdock winning, it would be more competitive.

When Mr Lugar ran for re-election in 2006, he was seen as so invincible that Democrats did not field an opponent. But he saw the atmosphere of Congress change dramatically to gridlock in recent years.

Mr Mourdock received a major boost from grassroots Tea Party support, with thousands of volunteers going door-to-door to get out the vote.

Among those paying tribute to Mr Lugar’s bipartisanship over the years was Barack Obama, who said that while he and the senator “didn’t always agree on everything, I found during my time in the Senate that he was often willing to reach across the aisle and get things done”.