Tea Party Upsets Utah Mormon Political Tradition

Excerpts of Tea Party Gets a Victory in Utah, Upsets Mormon Tradition by Joanna Brooks, Religious Dispatches
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The Tea Party has major traction among conservative Mormons who believe in the divine origins of the U.S. Constitution, the virtues of "free market" capitalism, the immorality of socialism and who revere Mormon Tea Party heroes like Mormon media heavyweight Glenn Beck and Mormon anti-communist writer Cleon Skousen (1913 – 2006).

What is startling about Bennett's ouster is that it may mark a break in the Utah Mormon tradition of electing to political office older, wealthy Mormon men with deep social, business, and familial connections to the institutional leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  

Senator Bob Bennett, Utah's 76-year-old "junior senator," is the son of Senator Wallace F. Bennett (1898 – 1993), the grandson of Mormon Church president Heber J. Grant (1856 – 1945), and a descendent of the storied Wells-Bennett-Grant family line that includes Mormon apostles, governors, legislators, and mayors. His wife, Joyce McKay, is a granddaughter of Mormon Church president David O. McKay (1873 – 1970).  

Not even a 2009 book defending the Book of Mormon published by LDS Church-owned Deseret Book company nor an endorsement from Mitt Romney, another wealthy Mormon with a deep and storied Mormon pedigree, could save Bennett.  
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