Meet 12 Tea Party Activists Who’re Busy Improving Their State

By Kevin Mooney on October 5, 2018

RICHMOND, Va.—Go in search of the tea party movement that rose up in opposition to the policies of President Barack Obama, and you won’t get the full picture if you fixate on political rallies and protests.

That’s because many tea party activists have been burrowing into state legislative houses across the nation, where their membership has developed expertise on a wide range of public policy questions.

With an eye toward the Virginia General Assembly session that begins in January, about 200 Virginia Tea Party members who gathered here at a downtown hotel Sept. 22 describe how their movement has “morphed” since its inception in 2009.

Instead of staging rallies in front of the Capitol in Washington or various statehouses, the tea party is focused on legislative initiatives that will have a more lasting impact, attendees of the Virginia Tea Party’s fall summit meeting told The Daily Signal.

Mark Daugherty, a retired Wall Street financial analyst who resides in Augusta County, was there at the moment of creation when the tea party coalesced into a real movement.

Daugherty, 63, recalls the first statewide meeting in October 2009 in Hanover County, and a larger rally of about 3,000 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center in October …read more