Cornyn Warns Republicans of Primary Challenges

Several establishment Republican candidates were upset in primaries by tea-party backed insurgents this year. And incumbent GOP senators better be ready for the same trend in 2012, says Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), The Hill reports.

“I’ve already told all of the incumbents to expect primaries and to get ready and to go and make sure you connect with your potential critics and people who don’t know what you’re doing up here on their behalf,” he says. “I think everybody needs to be prepared for the new order of things.”

Watch out for tea partyers, says Brian Darling, director of government relations at the Heritage Foundation. “It seems that the tea party movement is prepared to replace what they see as establishment Republicans in conservative-leaning states with tea party candidates,” he says.