Big night for tea party: Christine O'Donnell pulls off win in Delaware

It's tea time in America.

Conservative Christine O'Donnell is celebrating her stunning upset over Rep. Mike Castle in the Republican Senate primary in Delaware, propelled by tea party activists into a November showdown with Democrat Chris Coons. After a primary season shaped by economic pain and exasperated voters, the grass-roots, antiestablishment movement can claim wins in at least seven GOP Senate races, a handful of Republican gubernatorial contests and dozens of House primary campaigns. And it influenced many others.

In the fight for New Hampshire's Republican Senate nomination, a second conservative insurgent trailed in vote counting that was still going on Wednesday. After lagging in early returns, former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte moved ahead of Ovide Lamontagne with a lead of roughly 1,100 votes, with results tallied from 87 percent of precincts. Ayotte was backed by establishment Republicans and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin; Lamontagne, a former chairman of the state Board of Education, campaigned with the support of tea party activists.

At the end of a long and fierce primary season, Republicans were clearly upbeat about their chances in November — thanks in part to tea party fervor.

"Turnout and enthusiasm are off the charts because Americans have had enough of a Congress and an administration who simply refuse to listen to Americans who are speaking out," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

In New York, tea party ally Carl Paladino dealt another shock to the GOP establishment, defeating former Rep. Rick Lazio in the race for the party's nomination for governor. Paladino will face state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the well-known son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo.

The Delaware outcome reflected the energy and enthusiasm of the tea partiers, but O'Donnell also enters the race against Coons as an underdog, a fresh complication for the GOP effort to capture control of the Senate. Former George W. Bush political adviser Karl Rove told Fox News Channel, "This is not a race we're going to be able to win." Delaware Republicans had actively worked against O'Donnell in Tuesday's primary.

On Wednesday, a triumphant O'Donnell accused the party of "Republican cannibalism."

"We have to rise above this nastiness and unify for the greater good, because there's a lot of work to be done and there are a lot of people who want to get involved if the Republican Party would," O'Donnell said in an interview with The Associated Press.