Contact: Courtney Nolan, Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, 703-297-9514, cnolan@sbpublicaffairs.com

MANASSAS, Va., Nov. 2 /Christian Newswire/ -- Tea Partiers should "bask in tonight's victories, get a good night's rest, sleep in, have a nice breakfast, watch TV -- then, Wednesday afternoon, start the hard work of taking over the Republican Party," Richard A. Viguerie, chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, said today.

"Some have asked how the Tea Party movement hopes to pressure Republican leaders or influence the party," said Viguerie. "That's the wrong way to look at it. The goal is not to pressure Republican leaders but to become the Republican leaders. The goal is not to influence the party but to become the party."

Viguerie noted: "The last time the GOP was in power, it became the party of big spending and Big Business special interests. Tens of millions of mainstream conservatives, future members of the Tea Party movement, gave up on the Republicans, leading to the party's defeat in 2006 and 2008.

"This year, members of the Tea Party movement provided almost all the excitement and energy, and 90% of the grassroots volunteers and small contributions that made a Republican victory possible. Now, Tea Partiers have the power and the responsibility to rebuild the GOP into a party that represents mainstream working-class and small-business-class Americans.

"The next stage of the Tea Party movement -- Tea Party 2.0 -- means taking over the GOP at every level from precinct captain to state chairman, and nominating one of our own for president," Viguerie said. "It means coopting the Big Business Republicans and turning them into Constitutional conservatives -- coopting them before they try to coopt us!"

He added: "If there's one thing the 2010 election has made clear, it's this: The era of Big Government Republicanism is over!"

NOTE TO EDITORS: Richard A. Viguerie pioneered political direct mail and has been called "one of the creators of the modern conservative movement" (The Nation magazine), one of the "conservatives of the century" (The Washington Times), and one of 2008's "top 25 influencers" among Republicans (NewsMax magazine). He is the author of Conservatives Betrayed: How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause.