Rachel M. Blum

This incisive and timely study of American party politics reveals how a fringe group within the Republican party came to wield outsized power.

The rise of the Tea Party redefined both the Republican Party and how we think about intraparty conflict. What initially appeared to be an anti-Obama protest movement of fiscal conservatives matured into a faction that sought to increase its influence in the Republican Party by any means necessary. Tea Partiers captured the party’s organizational machinery and used it to replace established politicians with Tea Party–style Republicans, eventually laying the groundwork for the nomination and election of a candidate like Donald Trump.

In How the Tea Party Captured the GOP, Rachel Marie Blum offers a novel theory of political party factions, framing them as miniature parties within parties. Using this framework, she demonstrates how fringe groups can leverage factions to increase their political influence in the American two-party system. 

In this richly researched book, Blum uncovers how the electoral losses of 2008 sparked disgruntled Republicans to form the Tea Party faction, and the strategies the Tea Party used to wage a systematic takeover of the Republican Party. This book not only illuminates how the Tea Party achieved its influence, but also provides a blueprint for identifying other factional insurgencies.

The University of Chicago Press

How the Tea Party Captured the GOP: Insurgent Factions in American Politics

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