Pete Sessions

Tea Party Activist Challenging NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions In GOP Primary

Eric Kleefeld | November 6, 2009, 3:23PM

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX)

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), the chairman of the NRCC, may have another problem on his hands in addition to the House GOP's recent woes in the NY-23 race: A primary challenge from a conservative activist back home.

David Smith, a corporate financial analyst, has declared his candidacy against Sessions in the Republican primary, citing the budget deficit, federal spending, and Sessions' votes for the Wall Street bailout as his main issues.

In an interview with TPM, Smith said that he has participated in Tea Parties as an activist, though he has not been an organizer, and explained that those events are motivated by the same issues of spending in Washington that he's long been concerned about. "And that begun under Republican control of the House and Senate and Republican control of the White House," said Smith. "I know it didn't boil over into marches in the streets and to the White House until a Democrat got elected, but that happened because Republicans weren't doing what people wanted, and Pete was a part of that."

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