This is an excerpt from ‘Rich People’s Movements’ by Issac William Martin, published by Oxford University Press, 2013.

On Election Day, November 2, 2010, more than eight million Americans voted for congressional candidates who claimed to represent the Tea Party and its grassroots insurgency against the federal government. Most of the Tea Party candidates won. Their victory marked a sea change in American government. Even before the winners were sworn in, reporters began to refer to the 112th Congress as ‘the Tea Party Congress.