Tea Party Choice Mike Lee Wins in Utah

Utah's Republican voters, faced with a choice of two Tea Party-backed candidates with near-identical platforms, picked the one with the legal background over the one with the business background. Mike Lee has been elected as the state's GOP nominee for US Senate, beating Tim Bridgewater by 51% to 49%, Politico reports.

Bridgewater and Lee both promised to be far more conservative than Sen. Bob Bennett, who was ousted at Utah's GOP convention last month. Lee—now almost certain to win election to the Senate from the heavily conservative state—had the backing of the national Tea Party Express, which poured money into the campaign in its final days.
(More Utah stories.)