CHARLIE SPIERING: Ted Cruz’s stunning 13 point victory in Texas. “Last January, Ted Cruz only registered 3 percent of support from Republicans in a PPP Texas primary poll for the United States Senate race. But last night the Tea Party candidate beat his opponent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, by 13 points. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Cruz won a stunning 56.8 percent of the vote with Dewhurst only getting 43.2 percent.”

Related: Tea Party Pulls Upset In Texas Primary Race.

But they keep telling us the Tea Party is dead.

UPDATE: Prof. Stephen Clark writes: “The polls did not predict this beforehand and this was a much smaller sample the polling companies were working with. People should keep this in mind when reading polls about all the races this year; in particular, the presidential race.”

Meanwhile, Will Collier emails:

Ted Cruz wasn’t the only Tea Party victory yesterday. The entire political establishment of Georgia (including the Republican governor and legislative leadership, plus the Democratic mayor of Atlanta and his machine), just got its collective ass royally kicked by the Tea Party. “TSPLOST,” a sales tax hike that would have funded a multi-billion dollar slush fund for transit boondoggles and taxpayer-funded development bootstrapping was supported by $10 million in relentless advertising. Tea Party groups spent all of $15,000 in paid opposition.

Result: 69-31, against. And that was in the Atlanta metro region.

Story here. The Tea Party is not dead.