In the 2010 midterm elections, FreedomWorks packed Utahs state Republican Party convention with Tea Party activists, who came to bounce incumbent U.S. Senator Bob Bennett from his seat in favor of the right-wing neo-libertarian Mike Lee. The trick worked; Bennett came in third in the convention vote, leaving Lee to duke it out with businessman Tim Bridgewater in the caucuses, where he won.

FreedomWorkss ultimate aim appeared to be to destabilize Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. In McConnells home state of Kentucky, FreedomWorks, working with Jim DeMint, then the junior senator from South Carolina and leader of the Senate Conservatives Fund, launched the insurgent candidacy of Rand Paul for the nomination, in opposition to the more establishment candidate Trey Grayson, who was anointed by McConnell. Rand Paul prevailed. McConnell got the message, and began his bend further to the right.

In 2010, I interviewed Adam Brandon, then FreedomWorkss communications director before his ascendance to the organizations presidency, about FWs aim with its backing of insurgent Senate candidates. America needed more senators like DeMint, who opposed health care, energy reform, and labor unions, he said, in order to create something of a caucusa new power center, Brandon called it.

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How FreedomWorks Paved the Way for Trumpismand for Its Own Demise - The New Republic