In Kentucky, the Tea Party movement, with the voter discontent it has captured, has found its purest standard bearer in Dr. Rand Paul.

The Tea Party movement may aid Dr. Rand Paul in his bid for Kentucky’s open Senate seat.

From The New York Times:

[I]n Kentucky, the Tea Party movement, with the voter discontent it has captured, has found its purest standard bearer in Rand Paul, who is challenging Mr. [Trey Grayson, Secretary of State,] for the Republican nomination. An ophthalmologist, Dr. Paul is the son of Representative Ron Paul of Texas, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate whose libertarian backers often take credit for being the germ of the Tea Party.

The prospect of a Paul victory scares some Republicans.

Charlie Cook, a nonpartisan political forecaster, and some of Mr. Grayson’s backers here say that if Dr. Paul wins the primary, Republicans could lose the seat in November — proving that Tea Party energy, generally thought to benefit Republicans, can hurt them, too.

Dr. Paul, who has been endorsed by Sarah Palin, is met at each stop by local Tea Party groups with “Don’t Tread on Me” flags, who ask him how to reverse the health care bill, reduce the debt and bring back jobs.

For Mr. Grayson, there is irony in the challenge. Mr. [Mitch McConnell, a powerful backer and Kentucky’s senior senator and the Senate’s highest ranking Republican,] and his allies had feared that the sitting senator, Jim Bunning, would not win, so they nudged him out last summer after securing another Republican, Mr. Grayson, who was sure to win the seat.