WASHINGTON (AP) - Voters embraced the tea party's conservative
throw-the-bums-out anthem in key races across the country, with the
movement's favored candidates taking more than a dozen House seats
held by Democrats, three Senate races and the South Carolina
governorship.

The movement did not make a complete sweep despite a strong
anti-Democratic climate, with the most prominent losses coming from
tea party stars Christine O'Donnell of Delaware and Sharron Angle
of Nevada. Angle couldn't overcome Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid, and O'Donnell was soundly defeated after old videos emerged
of her discussing witchcraft, masturbation and mice with human
brains.

But tea party heroes Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of
Florida were elected to the Senate, while Sarah Palin-backed
Republican Nikki Haley was elected South Carolina governor. All
were long shots when they declared their candidacies but won over
voters with their Washington outsider, anti-tax campaigns.

"We've come to take our government back," said Paul, a
first-time candidate and son of libertarian hero Rep. Ron Paul of
Texas. He promised to lead a movement for fiscal sanity, limited
constitutional government and balanced budgets and to begin working
to build a tea party caucus in the Senate first thing Wednesday
morning.

"There's a tea party tidal wave, and we're sending a message,"
Paul said.

Tea Party Patriots co-founder JennyBeth Martin said local
activists from across the country would host a meeting for freshmen
lawmakers Nov. 14 to remind them that the movement's continuing
support depends on their performance.

"We've watched what's happened in the past - Republican or
Democrats promise things when they are running, and then they get
to Washington and they do what their party leadership wants them
to," she said from a victory party at a Washington hotel. "We're
not going to let that happen this time. If they uphold our core
values and the Constitution, then they will have political backing
from us. If not, we'll do this again in two years."

Tea party candidates were running strong as returns came in
Wednesday morning, picking up several Democratic seats in the
Republican takeover of the House. Chief among them was Republican
Vicky Hartzler, who courted tea party support in her victory over
House Armed Service Committee Chairman Ike Skelton. She ended
Skelton's 34 years in Congress.

Republicans with tea party support also defeated Democratic
incumbents in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey,
Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, South Dakota and two seats each in
New York and Illinois. And they picked up seats held by retiring
Democrats in Louisiana, Washington, Wisconsin, Michigan and two in
Arkansas.

The question for Election Day was whether the tea party
candidates would end up hurting the Republican Party more than they
helped by putting up some less viable candidates. That appeared to
be the case in the Nevada Senate race and in Delaware, where tea
party-fueled candidacies for O'Donnell and Glen Urquhart for the
state's Republican-held House seat gave Democrats easy victories
that wouldn't have been expected early in the campaign.

Democrats were able to hold onto the Colorado governorship after
tea party-backed GOP nominee Dan Maes' campaign imploded and
third-party candidate Tom Tancredo entered the race and splintered
the support of the state's activists. But fears that other
third-party tea party candidates would siphon voters from
Republican nominees were unfounded elsewhere.

Rubio, Paul and tea party Republican Mike Lee of Utah were
elected to seats held by Republicans, so they did not contribute to
GOP hopes for gains in the Senate. And Republican leaders may get a
challenge from tea party lawmakers who vowed to put their
conservative principles before party.

"Our nation is headed in the wrong direction and both parties
are to blame," said Rubio, a former state House speaker and son of
Cuban exiles. He said his election was part of "a second chance
for Republicans to be what they said they were going to be not so
long ago."

Rep. John Boehner, who planned to take over as speaker after
Republicans won the House, assured tea party activists from his
Ohio district in a Skype call after poll closing that he would
never let them down, Boehner spokesman Kevin Smith said.

Candidates with tea party support were on the ballot in more
than 70 House districts, seven races for Senate and three for
governor. Some were incumbents, such as South Carolina Republican
Rep. Joe Wilson. Wilson became an early hero to tea partiers for
yelling "You lie!" to President Barack Obama during a joint
session of Congress, and held onto his seat in a race that was
infused with out-of-state donations for both sides after the
heckle.

Four in 10 voters considered themselves tea party supporters,
according to preliminary exit poll results. And nearly 9 in 10 of
those tea party supporters voted for the Republican House
candidate.

But the tea party also was a polarizing force among some voters
- about a quarter of voters said they considered their vote a
message of support for the tea party and nearly as many said their
vote was meant to signal opposition to the movement. About half
said the tea party wasn't a factor.

The movement's candidates had no unified agenda, but often
pushed for a balanced budget, elimination of the federal debt,
repeal of the health care law and strict interpretation of the
Constitution. The AP's polling analysis found nearly 9 in 10 tea
party supporters wanted to repeal health care and felt Obama's
policies hurt the country. Only about a quarter of non-tea party
supporters felt that way.

Tea party candidates weren't always easy to identify since the
movement is a network of loosely connected community groups - not
an established political party with official nominees. Even within
the tea party there often was disagreement among rival groups about
the legitimacy of candidates claiming tea party credentials.

In identifying candidates, The Associated Press assessed factors
including a candidate's history with the movement, the involvement
of local leaders and activists in a campaign, endorsements or
support from tea party-affiliated groups and whether a candidate is
running on a platform that dovetails with the movement's agenda.