Will Mitt Romney kill the tea party?

Jerry DeLemus, who leads a Tea Party group in Rochester, N.H., was the only activist who spoke to HuffPost who said categorically that he will not campaign for Romney, though he said he didn’t rule out voting for him.

“Everybody in the Tea Party movement wants to see Obama not win a second term, for a variety of reasons. And there are those in there who may go ahead and support Romney. I’m not one of those guys who will say that,” DeLemus said.

But several other Tea Party activists and conservatives, like Zupan, were just as adamant that they will work for Romney if he beats the other Republican candidates.

“If he’s the last man standing, would you see people charge up the hill — maybe myself included — to try to beat Barack Obama? Probably,” said the leader of one of the most influential national Tea Party groups who asked not to be identified. “I admitted to my wife, there are far worse things than Mitt Romney being our nominee.”