Even though support for the tea party may be down, Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks tells Newsmax that it's still the tea party's conservative values that are defining the upcoming midterms.
"You're still talking about 25 percent of the public, which by any measure would be a massive social movement," Kibbe told J.D. Hayworth and Olga Villaverde on "America's Forum" Thursday on
NewsmaxTV.
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According to Gallup, the support for the tea party is at 24 percent, which has been the norm for tea party support since 2011.
"And the tea party brand has taken its beating over the past years both from Democrats who fear it, but also from some Republicans who fear the accountability in primaries," the CEO of FreedomWorks explained.
For that reason, he says that he's "not surprised by that number."
However, "if you look at the values underlying the Tea Party — A) Show up and be involved in what your government is doing, and B) Keep government in check, balance the budget, keep government out of my healthcare — these are the values that are defining this election, and it's why the Democrats are on the defensive right now."
In 2010, support for the tea party movement was at 30 percent.
According to Kibbe, that support has fallen "because we tried to do things that are very difficult in Washington, like balance the budget."
In addition, "[Texas Sen.] Ted Cruz took a lot of flak for arguing that Obamacare was going to be a disaster and we shouldn't fund it, only to be proven right when we actually went ahead and implemented a really bad law."
The tea party has been "taking fire from all sides." But, "you don't come out of that without some bruises."
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