Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she strongly supports Mitt Romney as the Republican presidential nominee, but suggested the GOP establishment is out of step with what voters are looking for in their elected officials these days.
Referring to Ted Cruz’s surprising upset win in the Texas GOP Senate primary this week over favored Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Palin said it proves that voters are tired of the “establishment embracement of the status quo.”
“We want reformers to come in there, take our tax dollars back from politicians who are spending us into oblivion, put government back on our side,” the former Alaska governor told Fox News Wednesday.
Palin said the Dewhurst campaign message was “basically just business as usual, more of the same, go along to get along.”
“People are tired of that. We can’t afford it,” said Palin, who has been crossing the country campaigning for Cruz and other tea party candidates running for Congress.
Asked about the resurgence of the tea party, Palin, a contributor to Fox News, said the conservative movement never faded away, as some GOP leaders have claimed.
“Both the parties are a wee bit out of touch” on that score, she said, pointing to the Cruz victory and other tea party campaigns that have established GOP and Democratic candidates on edge this year.
Asked if it was time for Romney to “bury the hatchet” with tea party conservatives and invite her to play a role in the upcoming GOP convention in Tampa, Palin replied: “There’s no hatchet to bury or olive branch that needs to be passed between Mitt Romney and myself.”
“We have a good relationship and I have great respect for him, and am so thankful that the GOP has a strong candidate who understands the private sector and what it takes to get the economy roaring again,” she said.
But Palin added, “Whether I am [at the convention] or not as a speaker, I am comfortable either way, just like [former House Speaker] New Gingrich said he was comfortable either way.”
In the meantime, Palin said she plans to continue her focus on “those down-ticket races” for the House and Senate “that will be so instrumental in reforming government, shrinking it, allowing the private sector to grow and thrive.”
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