“The Senator said he hoped he could earn the support of the Tea Party, and that he is conservative,” said Greg Fettig, the co-founder of Hoosier Patriots. Fettig was joined in the meeting by Monica Boyer of Kosciusko “Silent No More,” a Tea Party group in northeast Indiana.

“We obviously would beg to differ that he is conservative, and our experience is that he won’t get the support of any Tea Party group across the state,” Fettig told CNN. “This is something that has really been building for years. A lot of Tea Party people have said, ‘Who is this guy? He might as well have a ‘D’ in front of his name.'”…

Fettig called Lugar “likeable” and “a lovely human being,” but said Lugar should prepare for a Tea Party challenge.

“We weren’t swayed,” he told CNN. “We equated it to going out on a football field, shaking hands, flipping the coins, and game on. He wants to win, and we want to win.”