A Tea Party Candidate Loseth, A Tea Party Candidate Winneth

Last week around this time, many of us Tea Party supporters were at the very least disappointed in the North Carolina race for the United States senate as Speaker of the House Thom Tillis beat back a divided challenge in the Tar Heel state.
And judging from the leftywhore media, it was a huge loss for the Tea Party and a huge win for the senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ken.). And it was confirmed in the usual confines of the leftywhore media. In defense of Mr. Tillis, I don't think that North Carolina Republicans exactly nominated a total RINO* in the manner of maybe Mike Castle. Mr. Tillis is a solid conservative, but not exactly a fire-breathing, tried and true Tea Party type.
But tonight, Republican voters in Nebraska gave the Tea Party a substantive win in the candidacy of Ben Sasse.
As of this writing with about 80% of precincts reporting, Mr. Sasse is handily ahead of a late rush challenge by Sid Dinsdale with 50% of the vote to Mr. Dinsdale's 22%. In third place, yes you read that right, third place is the establishment-backed candidate, Shane Osborn with 21%. The rest of the vote is scattered between two also-rans with about seven percent of the remaining vote.
This race was much more animated than the North Carolina race.
The senate minority leader, Mr. McConnell, put all of his weight behind Mr. Osborn, the former state treasurer. He was helped out by Karl Rove and his American Crossroads group. Most of the Tea Party and aligned groups backed Mr. Sasse, the president of Midland Lutheran College. These groups helped raise $2,000,000 for the Sasse campaign. In fact, Mr. Dinsdale, former chair of Pinnacle Bank, was himself pretty RINO, definitely not right of center. He was a supporter of Obamacare. And yet between two establishment types, they could not unite to defeat Mr. Sasse. A late endorsement from the Omaha World-Herald may have helped Mr. Dinsdale to end up finishing in second place.
But here's the difference in North Carolina and Nebraska.
In North Carolina, the Tea Party candidate, Greg Bannon, was weak. And there was a third candidate, Pastor Mark Harris, that took away votes from Mr. Bannon. There was division among Tea Party voters.
In Nebraska, there was no such division on the Tea Party side. Most groups were united behind Mr. Sasse. Most establishment groups backed Mr. Osborn. And, as noted Mr. Dinsdale was able to gain some establishment-like support. The establishment ended up being divided.
This is why we have primaries.
It is the only way that we can take a look at candidates and see which one will be the best in a general election.
Check that.
On the Republican side, what conservative can be the best in a general election.
The fact is that this is good for the Republican party. It is the way to see how a candidate will react in a general election campaign.
And we will see a lot of this back and forth in the upcoming primaries.
In the end, it will be a Tea Party candidate loseth, a Tea Party candidate winneth.

*RINO-Republican In Name Only