Why aren't tea-party candidates winning elections?

The main reason seems to be a predictable growing pain of any new political movement. While tea party partisans have proved effective in organizing rallies and protests, they have yet to show they possess the bread-and-butter on-the-ground campaign skills it takes to win races, said Jerry Ray “Tea” Hall, who won less than 5 percent of the vote in his primary campaign against Ralph Hall in Texas.

“The movement has more, ‘This is what we believe,’ than, ‘This is what we are going to do about it,’” said “Tea” Hall, adding that he saw little coordination or get-out-the-vote efforts among tea party leaders in the North Texas-area district. “I think, based on what I saw, they couldn’t get organized.”…

Hughes said his February loss highlighted the need for the tea party to make endorsements in races — a move, he said, that would help to consolidate support behind a consensus candidate.

“If we do this going forward, there has to be one candidate — and that candidate has to have 100 percent support,” said Hughes. “I think, electorally for them to have a political impact, they all have to get behind one candidate.”