Disenchanted voters in the United States yesterday turned against both establishment parties in the US primaries as a number of states voted on party candidates for November's mid-term elections.
In Kentucky, voters opted for a conservative Tea Party newcomer in the Republican Senate primary over a handpicked Republican favourite.
Elsewhere, veteran senator Arlen Specter saw his bid for a sixth term ended yesterday with a loss to fellow Democrat Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania's primary vote, while two-term Democratic senator Blanche Lincoln also struggled in Arkansas after failing to win the necessary majority of the Senate primary vote.
Conservative Rand Paul easily won the party nomination over secretary of state Trey Grayson in a Kentucky race seen as an early test of the loosely organised Tea Party movement, a grass-roots section of the Republican Party that is pulling it to the right
Mr Paul, a doctor and son of libertarian Republican Representative Ron Paul, rode a wave of voter anger with the help of Tea Party activists who oppose runaway federal spending and favour more limited government.
"We have come to take our government back," he told supporters in Bowling Green, Kentucky. "This Tea Party movement is a message to Washington that we are unhappy and we want things done differently."
Mr Paul will face state attorney general Jack Conway, who won the Democratic primary, in November.
Elsewhere, Mr Specter saw his bid for a sixth term ended yesterday with a loss to fellow Democrat Joe Sestak in Pennsylvania's primary vote.
"This is what democracy looks like - a win for the people over the establishment, over the status quo, even over Washington DC," Mr Sestak told supporters in Pennsylvania.
Mr Specter, a 30-year Senate veteran, was the latest incumbent to go down in a wave of anti-establishment anger fuelled by distrust of Washington and worries neither party is doing enough to rescue the economy and restrain government spending.
He had switched from Republican to Democrat last year after calculating he could not win a Republican primary.
Mr Sestak, a retired Navy admiral and the highest ranking former military officer ever elected to Congress, will face Republican Pat Toomey in November's Senate race in Pennsylvania.
In Arkansas, Democratic senator Blanche Lincoln is heading for a June 8th run-off election against lieutenant governor Bill Halter after failing to win the necessary majority of the Senate primary vote in Arkansas.
With slightly more than half the votes counted, Ms Lincoln and Mr Halter were running about even at 43 per cent. A third candidate, DC Morrison, won enough votes to prevent either Ms Lincoln or Mr Halter from crossing the 50 per cent threshold.
The anti-Washington mood threatens to sweep away many well-known incumbents and put Democratic control of Congress at risk in November, when all 435 House of Representatives seats, 36 of 100 Senate seats and 37 of 50 state governorships are up for election.
A dramatic upheaval could hinder President Barack Obama's legislative agenda, threaten each party's remaining moderates and increase polarisation in Congress.
But Democrats got a shot of good news yesterday in a special House election in Pennsylvania to replace Democrat John Murtha, who died in February. Democrat Mark Critz, a longtime Murtha aide, beat Republican Tim Burns in a blue-collar Democratic district won by Republican John McCain in 2008.
It was the seventh consecutive special House election won by the Democrats since 2008.
Reuters