50.47% to 49.26%, a margin of 4296 votes out of >355,000, even though "In redistricting, the 6th district was expanded to include Carver County and was made more favorable to Republicans." I do not think her (quite) as stupid as she sounds, and so imagine she read the writing on the wall; expect a Fox talk show.

The larger issue is twofold:

First, the big challenge of insurgency campaigns is the difficulty of GOVERNING as an outsider. Once elected, politicians increasingly cease to be "outsiders," by definition, and the extent to which they accomplish anything (and thus justify re-election) is usually inversely proportional to how much they remain outsiders. Obama is a classic example: His very insurgent campaign resulted in a very establishment administration. Frequently, remaining an outsider only isolates candidates from the party organization and funding often crucial to victory, hence the Tea Party DID succeed in ousting a genuine outsider in 2010: Russ Feingold, the only Senator to vote against the "USA PATRIOT" Act and, along with the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, co-author of landmark campaign finance reform.

Additionally, the party establishment naturally resents and resists insurgents, and, whether we consider them populists or mere demagogues, the Tea Party has always been at odds with wealthy patricians who have always financed and consequently run the Republican Party. It does not help that much of the Tea Party is freakin' LOOPY and have singlehandedly squandered two golden Republican chances to retake the Senate in as many elections. 2010 was bad enough, but Democrats defended literally TWICE as many Senate seats as Republicans in 2012 yet managed a net GAIN OF TWO! That should not even be possible, but when 10% of GOP Senate nominees voluntarily and very visibly ran on the "rape is contraception" platform all Democrats had to do was sit back and watch them implode.

Republican leaders are increasingly unwilling to support people like Todd Akin for the same reason Claire McCaskill ran primary ads calling him the "most conservative" candidate in the race: Because he and he alone helped her retain a Senate seat every Democrat in the country had resigned themselves to losing.

The House has a (sizable) Tea Party caucus; they nearly unseated their own Speaker this January, and have consistently blocked joint budget comprimises by him AND Obama for going on two years. At this very moment they are threatening to shut down the government if not allowed to defund Robamacare, even with Boehner, McConnell and every other rational Republican begging them not to repeat the self-destruction wrought by Christine O'Donnell and Akin. The House lends itself to that kind of crap, but to win a statewide race outside places like KY even Tea Party darlings like Cruz and Rubio must broaden their base substantially and tone down their extremism, at least in public.

Frankly, as a diehard lib I can hardly wait for the 2016 GOP primary (partly because the Dems crop is so uninspiring.) People talking up Cruz just so shows how out of touch the Tea Party is; if Obama proved one thing it is that senators should not be elected president before even completing one term, and he was there twice as long as Cruz: WTF do they expect him to do in two years to justify leading the whole country? And the longer the GOP continues bleeding itself over immigration reform, the more certain I am some Tea Partier will call Rubio an "anchor baby" in 2016; then the REAL fun will begin. pops corn, melts butter