Texas Conservatives Set to Challenge Hutchison

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, may have lost more than a bid for the governor’s seat in her March primary defeat to popular Republican Gov. Rick Perry. Although Hutchison hasn’t announced yet whether she’ll try for re-election, tea party activists plan to launch their own candidates for her seat in 2012, The Hill reports.

That leads Republican activists and strategists to conclude that Hutchison may opt for retirement.

She was actually quite popular before her decision to challenge Perry, but not any more.

“She’s burned some bridges,” Austin-based tea party activist Dean Wright tells The Hill. “And she hasn’t embraced the grass roots.” He expects up to eight conservative candidates to run against Hutchison if she tries to keep her seat.