Glenn Wins Kalamazoo Area TEA Party Vote

Gary Glenn

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Gary Glenn Thursday night won the support of the delegates a Kalamazoo area TEA Party group will send to a statewide convention of 55 such groups later this month where they will endorse and unite behind one candidate in the GOP Senate primary.

Glenn won the support of the VanKal TEA Party Patriots, who will send their delegates to vote for Glenn at the Michigan 4 Conservative Senate statewide TEA Party convention on Feb. 25th.

(Click here for Kalamazoo Gazette coverage)

Results of the voting were: Glenn 46 percent, Randy Hekman 20 percent, Clark Durant 16 percent, Peter Konetchy 8 percent, Scotty Boman 7 percent, and Pete Hoekstra 4 percent.

"There are thousands of TEA Party patriots across Michigan who deeply love America and are committed to the hard work that's required to bring our country back from the brink of socialism," Glenn said. "I will be both humbled and proud to fight alongside them to defeat one of the most liberal U.S. senators in the country and help preserve a free country to pass on to our children."

This week Glenn was endorsed by the National Right to Work Committee PAC in an email sent to the PAC’s supporters nationwide urging contributions to Glenn’s campaign.

(Click here for the endorsement)

The pro-Right to Work group’s endorsement comes as Glenn’s campaign is gathering steam on the strength of TEA Party straw poll wins and endorsements.

Last week, Glenn won the support of the Midland area TEA Party group “We the People of Mid-Michigan” – defeating Clark Durant 57-to-17 for the support of their MI4CS convention delegates.

In September, he defeated Washington, D.C. lobbyist and former 18-year congressman Pete Hoekstra and five other candidates in a straw poll of 500 attendees following a debate sponsored by three mid-Michigan TEA Party groups. He won the straw poll by double-digits following a TEA Party-sponsored debate in Richland attended by 300 in November, and won an outright majority among five candidates participating in a November debate sponsored by the Grand Traverse Republican Party.

Last month Glenn won the support of the Western Thumb TEA Party, in Vassar, and Clinton County TEA Party.

In December, Glenn was endorsed by Fox News host and former Gov. Mike Huckabee.