UPDATE 1-Tea Party Republican Huelskamp loses re-election bid for U.S. House

08/03/2016 10:34

(Adds details on opponents in Nov. 8 general election)

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Representative Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, a Tea Party favorite who often feuded with Republican leaders in the U.S. House, lost his bid for re-election in the party's primary contest, unofficial state results showed on Wednesday.

Huelskamp, who was seeking a fourth term, won just 44 percent of Tuesday's vote in losing to political newcomer Roger Marshall, a physician who took 57 percent, according to the Kansas secretary of state's website.

Marshall said Huelskamp had become an ineffective player in Washington after losing key committee positions in a stand-off with Republican leaders. Conservative political action committees spent heavily this year to defeat Huelskamp and support Marshall, who also was backed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Huelskamp comes from a Kansas farm family and was elected to Congress in 2010 amid a wave of support from the Tea Party movement, which promotes smaller government and reduced federal spending and taxation. He repeatedly tangled with his House Republican leaders in pushing for a more conservative fiscal agenda.

Huelskamp was a prominent member of the Freedom Caucus of House conservatives who have riled House Republican leadership. His battles with former House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner left him stripped of his House Budget and Agriculture Committee memberships, a blow to his farm-rich state.

"Voters are looking for results from their Reps, not obstructionism," the Chamber of Commerce's political wing said in a tweet after the vote, calling Marshall an "effective conservative."

Huelskamp, in a post on Facebook overnight, said the race showed how big money from "Washington power brokers" had defeated Kansas values.

"It is now perfectly clear," he wrote, "that the Establishment wing of the Republican party cannot stand conservatives," he wrote.

Marshall will face Libertarian candidate Kerry Burt in the Nov. 8 general election. There is no Democratic candidate, according to the Kansas secretary of state's website.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Susan Cornwell and Susan Heavey; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Bill Trott)

08/03/2016 10:34