Will the Tea Party oust any incumbent GOP senators this year?

Tea Party upstarts have so far been shut out in their attempts to unseat incumbent Republican senators this year, but they'll get two more chances to do so this week when voters head to the polls in Kansas and Tennessee. Unfortunately for them, though, their odds of pulling off a dramatic upset are slim, at best.

On Tuesday, GOP voters in Kansas will choose between 33-year incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts and challenger Milton Wolf, Obama's second cousin. Roberts has shown some signs of weakness — anonymous Republicans told Politico they were "worried" about the threat of an upset — though he holds about a 20-point lead according to recent polling.

Similarly, Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander has a solid double-digit edge on his closest competitor, Rep. Joe Carr. Alexander could also get a boost now that a third candidate, George Flinn, has entered the race and attacked Carr.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

That said, primary polling is notoriously fickle. And no one predicted Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) would get the boot earlier this year either, so a stunning victory is certainly not out of the question — it's just highly unlikely.