Lamar Alexander Receives Letter From Tea Party Urging Him To Retire

A group of 20 tea party and conservative organizations sent an open letter to Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday asking him to retire, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The groups, which reportedly represent around 10,000 members collectively, criticized Alexander for his "compromise and bipartisanship."

“America faces serious challenges and needs policymakers who will defend conservative values, not work with those who are actively undermining those values,” they wrote. “Quite honestly, your voting record shows that you do not represent the conservative values that we hold dear and the votes you have cast as Senator are intolerable to us.”

The undersigned congratulated Alexander for a "long and notable career," but criticized him for being the root of the problems they hoped the party would fix.

Alexander has received a lot of criticism from tea partiers and conservatives for voting in favor of an immigration reform bill that would give a path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants.

Last month, protesters invaded an Alexander event wearing shirts that said "Beat Lamar" and signs saying "you betrayed us."

“I didn’t hear anything they said," Alexander told Politico. “They were a mile away. They were enjoying their First Amendment rights, and I was enjoying playing 'Johnny B. Goode' with Mike Huckabee.”

No challenger for the August 2014 primary election has emerged.

Read the full letter to Alexander here.