NAPA, Calif (AP) - The Tea Party Express kicked off its fifth annual national tour Saturday with a rally in California's wine country before heading east through 19 states.
The "Reclaiming America" bus tour is set to visit 29 cities, with multiple stops in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. It will reach Tampa, Fla., in time for a presidential debate co-sponsored with CNN on Sept. 12.
The political headliner was Sharron Angle, the conservative Nevada Republican who challenged Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid in last year's U.S Senate race. Reid won by 6 percentage points, or 40,000 votes.
"We are making a difference," Angle said before leading the crowd in singing "God Bless America" and offering to autograph her new book. "This is not about taxation. This is about overreaching, over-regulating, over-spending government."
The tea party's backing helped her win the Republican nomination despite being shunned by the Republican Party establishment.
From Sacramento, the Tea Party Express buses decorated with the Declaration of Independence and national map of the tour route headed to Reno for a Saturday evening rally.
They track east through Utah, Wyoming and Nebraska before spending two days in Iowa. Then it's on to Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, New York, New Hampshire, and Maine. The tour turns south through Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida.