Chad Mathis has racked up an impressive list of supporters for his congressional campaign, including national conservative heavyweights like FreedomWorks, The Madison Project, Club for Growth and U.S. Sen. Mike Lee. Most recently, the Tea Party Patriots, a national tea party organization, came out in support of Mathis’ candidacy, an announcement that now has local tea party groups up in arms.
“Tea Party Patriots is an organization which relies on the support and actions of local tea party groups across the nation to accomplish legislative and grassroots victories,” a coalition of Alabama’s tea party groups wrote today in an open letter to the Tea Party Patriots. “[W]e object to organizations and groups like yours selecting our candidate. As none of you are located in Alabama, you have neither the background nor the history at the grassroots level with the Tea Party and other conservative groups that reside here.”
The local groups said that they have chosen to throw their support behind state senator Scott Beason, who they said has “been in the trenches fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with Alabama grassroots, even before the inception of the Tea Party.”
“Alabama Grassroots Members overwhelmingly choose Scott Beason as the conservative Tea Party candidate for Alabama’s 6th Congressional District,” they wrote. “Through our tireless ‘hand-to-hand’ engagements we believe that WE are best equipped to choose the most qualified candidate and leader for the AL 6th Congressional District. We have worked closely with Scott for years and we are intimately familiar with the issues affecting our district and state.”
The Mathis campaign declined to comment on the local tea party groups’ letter.
Beason and Mathis are two of the seven Republican candidates squaring off in the 6th Congressional District GOP primary set to take place June 3.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
