Tea Party Favorite Captures Nebraska Senate Primary
The tea party scored a win in Nebraska on Tuesday as university president Ben Sasse captured the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in a bitter race that highlighted fissures within the GOP. Two women set the stage for history-making in West Virginia.
Sasse, who had the backing of outside conservative groups, Sarah Palin and Sen. Ted Cruz, grabbed 48 percent of the vote in a five-man primary. Sid Dinsdale, the president of Pinnacle Bank, surged to second and former State Treasurer Shane Osborn finished third.
"We were never doing this because we need another job," Sasse told supporters Tuesday night. "We were only going to do this if we were going to talk about big, bold, conservative ideas."
Outside groups pumped millions into the race for Sasse while allies of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tried to propel Osborn to the nomination.
With little to celebrate to date, conservative groups immediately trumpeted Sasse's victory.
"Ben Sasse won this race because he never stopped fighting for conservative principles," said Matt Hoskins, executive director of the Senate Conservatives Fund. The group spent more than $1.2 million to help Sasse.
Cruz said Sasse's win "is a clear indication that the grassroots are rising up to make D.C. listen."
Voters in Nebraska and West Virginia decided their lineups for the November elections in the latest round of spring primaries. The fall midterms will determine control of Congress for the last two years of President Barack Obama's second term, with Republicans expected to hold the House and cautiously optimistic about winning control of the Senate.
The GOP needs to net six seats to grab the majority
In West Virginia, Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito and Democrat Natalie Tennant cruised to primary wins and will square off in a Senate showdown in November that will give the state its first female senator.
Capito is a seven-term congresswoman and daughter of former Gov. Arch Moore; Tennant is the state's secretary of state. Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller is retiring after 30 years.
West Virginia has become increasingly Republican, and Capito entered the general election contest as the heavy favorite. If elected, she would be the first Republican senator from West Virginia since 1959.