Nebraska primary goes Tea Party's way

WASHINGTON -- The Tea Party scored a win in Nebraska on Tuesday as university president Ben Sasse captured the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Meanwhile, 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 45 percent of the vote to 25 percent for Sid Dinsdale, the president of Pinnacle Bank, and 23 percent for former State Treasurer Shane Osborn.

For months, Sasse was locked in an increasingly negative race with Osborn, who had the support of the Washington establishment and allies of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Conservative groups immediately trumpeted Sasse's win.

"Ben Sasse won this race because he never stopped fighting for conservative principles," said Senate Conservatives Fund Executive Director Matt Hoskins. Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said Sasse built his campaign "on the simple idea that Obamacare is a disaster that needs to be repealed."

Voters in Nebraska and West Virginia were deciding 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 congressman and daughter of former Gov. Arch Moore. Tennant is the state's secretary of state. They are looking to replace Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, who is retiring after 30 years.

West Virginia has become increasingly Republican, and Capito enters the general-election contest as the heavy favorite. If elected, she would be the first Republican senator from West Virginia since 1959.

In Nebraska, Sasse, who heads Midland University, had the backing of the Tea Party Patriots and FreedomWorks in his bid to replace Republican Sen. Mike Johanns, who is retiring after a single six-year term.

Sasse has focused on his conservative credentials, opposition to abortion, support for gun rights and goal of repealing and replacing Obama's health-care law.

In one 30-second ad, Sasse's two young daughters, Alex and Corrie, talk about how much their dad opposes the Affordable Care Act. "He wants to destroy it," says one daughter. "He despises it," says the other.

Outside groups and the candidates have spent millions on the race in which the GOP winner is widely expected to prevail in November in a state where Obama won just 38 percent of the vote in 2012. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, the party's campaign operation, has remained neutral.

Trial lawyer Dave Domina faces Larry Marvin in the Democratic primary.

The Tea Party has struggled so far this year as candidates have lost to establishment favorites in Texas, North Carolina and Ohio.

The Republican establishment welcomed the Tea Party's energy that propelled the GOP to control of the House in the 2010 elections, but it blames Tea Party members for less-than-viable candidates in 2010 and 2012.

Republicans in the capital remain convinced they could have won control of the Senate in 2012 if their establishment candidates had won more primaries, and some in the party have been determined to defeat the Tea Party's candidates this election.

In West Virginia, Democratic names like Byrd and Rockefeller dominated politics for decades, but since 2000, the state has voted Republican in presidential elections. The transformation is widely expected to continue this fall as Republicans capitalize on voter antipathy toward Obama, who lost all of the state's 55 counties in 2012.

Capito's planned departure from the House created a messy GOP primary in her 2nd Congressional District that stretches across the state. Among the top Republicans were Charlotte Lane, a former commissioner of the U.S. International Trade Commission; Alex Mooney, the former chairman of the Maryland GOP who moved to the state; and pharmacist Ken Reed. Mooney won the race.

Democrats are hoping that their likely nominee, former state party chairman Nick Casey, can snatch a GOP seat.

A Section on 05/14/2014

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