WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – Disenchanted U.S. voters in both parties turned against the establishment on Tuesday, choosing a conservative “Tea Party” newcomer over a handpicked Republican favorite and dumping veteran Democratic Senator Arlen Specter ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Two-term Democratic Senator Blanche Lincoln also struggled and was headed to a June 8 run-off election against Lieutenant Governor Bill Halter after failing to win the necessary majority of the Senate primary vote in Arkansas.
“This is what democracy looks like — a win for the people over the establishment, over the status quo, even over Washington D.C.,” an exuberant U.S. Representative Joe Sestak told supporters in Pennsylvania after beating 80-year-old Specter.
Specter, a 30-year Senate veteran and former chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was the latest incumbent to go down in a wave of anti-establishment anger fueled by distrust of Washington and worries neither party is doing enough to rescue the economy and restrain government spending.
In Kentucky, conservative Rand Paul easily won the Republican nomination over Secretary of State Trey Grayson for an open U.S. Senate seat in a race seen as an early test of the loosely organized Tea Party movement.
Paul, a doctor and son of libertarian Republican Representative Ron Paul, rode a wave of voter anger with the help of Tea Party activists who oppose runaway federal spending and favor more limited government.
“We have come to take our government back,” Paul told supporters in Bowling Green, Kentucky. “This Tea Party movement is a message to Washington that we are unhappy and we want things done differently.”
Paul will face state Attorney General Jack Conway, who won the Democratic primary, in November.
The anti-Washington mood threatens to sweep away many well-known incumbents and put Democratic control of Congress at risk in November, when all 435 House of Representatives seats, 36 of 100 Senate seats and 37 of 50 state governorships are up for election.
A dramatic upheaval could hinder President Barack Obama’s legislative agenda, threaten each party’s remaining moderates and increase polarization in Congress.
