Tea Party + Values Voters = Under 30% in November

Values Voters See Common Cause, If Not Agenda, With Tea Party (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/17/values-voters-see-common-_n_721672.htm­l)
With its emphasis on lower taxes and smaller government, the "tea party" movement hasn't spent a lot of time on the social issues that animate social conservatives--abortion, gay marriage or stem cell research.

But that doesn't worry Leigh-Ann Bellew, the New Jersey leader of a conservative mother's group, who sees "faith-based" activists among the tea party foot soldiers heading into the fall mid-term elections.

"What I've seen in the tea party (events) that I've been to is it's a highly pro-life, traditional values group--not all of them, but many of them," said Bellew, vice president of MOM for America.

"I wish they'd be more vocal about it but I think they're afraid that might divide up the movement."

Texas lawyer Matt Krause, too, may not agree with tea party icon Glenn Beck's Mormonism, but says he saw a kindred spirit in the broadcaster's recent God-and-country rally along the National Mall.

Many of the estimated 2,000 social conservatives who flocked here Friday (Sept. 17) for the annual Values Voter Summit say the tea party's smaller-is-better conservatism resonates with them, even if it doesn't always hit all the same hot buttons.

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• tea party
• values voters
• rachel maddow
• chris matthews
• keith olbermann
• social conservative