1. IntroductionThe United States of America is a classic example of a two-party political system. (see McDonald/Samples, 2006: 18). The Republican Party and the Democratic Party ...However, in early 2009, a new influential non-partisan actor appeared in the political arena. The Tea Party movement managed to significantly influence the 2010 elections to the United States House of Representatives and Senate. Their main positions, which can be found in their “Contract from America” (Tea Party Movement, 2010), played an important role in the election campaigns of both the Republican and Democratic Parties (...). The Tea Party supports better oversight of the constitutional powers of Congress, fewer environmental regulations that could have a negative impact on the economy, a balanced budget, reform of the single-rate tax system, a smaller and more efficient administration as well as subsidiarity at the federal, state, and local levels, for a reduction in the growth of federal government spending, for a more market-based health care system, for a reduction in dependence on foreign energy sources, for more restrictive rules for the use of earmarks, and for the repeal of all currently planned tax increases (ibid.). Their positions can be summarized as a strong stand against “big government,” especially the federal government. Based on a rational spatial choice framework of party competition developed by Anthony Downs, I try to analyze in this article what are the reasons that allow the Tea Party Movement to force traditional parties, first and foremost the Republican Party, to adopt many of their positions in their election campaigns. In line with this, the central research question of this article is… half of the article… demonstrates that the Tea Party movement could become a real party that directly participates in party competition in the United States by running candidates in all the types of elections: state, federal or even presidential. The “Grand Old Party” shifts its position on “big government” closer to that of the Tea Party to remove their incentives to run, given that their interest will already be defended by the Republicans. In doing so, the GOP accepts that this behavior could actually weaken its position in elections as Democrats may also try to shift their positions further to the right, absorbing some of the traditional Republican voters. But for the Republican Party this option is the lesser of two evils: as our analysis has shown, the creation of a real Tea-Party party could seriously endanger the political survival of the Republican Party..