ElectWomen – When the Oklahoma Sooner Tea Party endorsed Mary Sosa for OK State Representative in a recent run-off election between two Democratic candidates, it sealed her fate. On August 26th, 64-year-old Mary Sosa lost by a huge margin to 21-year-old Shane Stone after came in a strong first in the primary election in June. The different this time was the influence and mailing efforts of the Oklahoma Tea Party PAC.

The Tea Party endorsed Mary Sosa, knowing it would hurt her with a liberal base she needed to win in the run-off election.  From the Tea Party newsletter:

“Add another Head on a Stick for the Sooner Tea Party Trophy Case” (http://ymlp.com/zuQm9O).  This is the text of the newsletter concerning Mary:

“Sooner Tea Party endorsed Mary Sosa lost to Shane Stone in a 61% to 39% in the HD 89 race to replace Rebecca Hamilton.   We took some heat for endorsing Mary Sosa from a few short sighted individuals until the wisdom of endorsing a Democratic Hispanic candidate in a liberal district in a Democratic runoff sunk in.   Our endorsement was supplemented with an Oklahoma Tea Party PAC mailing to the district where we pointed out the gay and lesbian support for Sosa and our reluctance to endorse because of that group’s influence on Sosa.   Sosa held a comfortable 25% margin over Shane Stone in the June primary election but that lead evaporated and a solid one third margin defeat occurred thanks to our endorsement.   Our cost to defeat a gay supported Hispanic candidate was less than $250.00 including the staff time spent hand addressing the envelopes.

Sosa’s war chest of $41,941.00 was simply wasted, further draining Democratic coffers for the upcoming General election.” Read more here.

Mary Sosa was supported by Oklahoma’s Sally’s List and was considered a “Game Changer” by The Women’s Campaign Fund.  Despite a much weaker candidate who had only $1,500 in the bank heading into the election, the outcome was influenced by the of the Tea Party endorsement and influx of money.