ON SEPTEMBER 14th tea-party conservatives struck another blow to the Republican establishment when Christine O'Donnell defied expectations to win the Republican Delaware Senate primary, beating Mike Castle, a nine-term Republican congressman. The tea-party candidate may also secure the nomination for the New Hampshire Senate seat as counting continued on September 15th, and Carl Paladino was victorious in the New York governorship nomination against the party's experienced candidate. A recent poll by YouGov for The Economist suggests that the movement's supporters are older, whiter, richer and far more likely to be Republican than Democrat.

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