DETROIT — The tea party was at work in Michigan's congressional races, helping lift two Republican candidates to victories in Democratic-held districts and nearly doing the same for two others.

The growing-yet-amorphous movement with its core principles of limited government, reduced spending and strict adherence to the Constitution proved last week that it packs a political punch.

Republicans Tim Walberg and Dan Benishek can attest to that.

Walberg, who lost his south-central Michigan seat to Battle Creek Democrat Mark Schauer in 2008, says the tea party played a "huge role" in his victory in the 7th District rematch.

"I think it woke up the district. The tea partiers had come alive. They had seen things that went on with government and said, 'That's enough,'" said Walberg, of Tipton. "When they found out that they could trust my record and trust what I said, they became real allies to me."

Benishek, a surgeon from Crystal Falls, also relied on tea party backing to take down 1st District Democratic nominee Gary McDowell, a state lawmaker from Rudyard. The seat was open after Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak said last spring he would not seek a 10th term.

Jim Bronkema, a 59-year-old sales consultant in the northern Michigan community of Elk Rapids, said his vote for Benishek was a reflection of his feelings about President Barack Obama.

"This is anti-Obama. I hate that man. I don't like his policies," said Bronkema, who had supported Stupak in the past.

The Northern Michigan Liberty Alliance, founded in January as an umbrella organization for the area's tea party groups, worked for a Benishek victory.

"I'd say probably 75 percent of the tea party people have come from a GOP background. And so I guess the fact that they were probably fired up and eager to put someone in there, hopefully, that is a little more limited government-based, certainly was a large factor" in the Benishek win, said Sault Ste. Marie resident Chad Stevens, the group's co-founder.

Walberg and Benishek weren't the only candidates to benefit from tea party support.

According to an Associated Press analysis, more than 30 tea party candidates nationally won election to Congress on Tuesday.

Michigan Republicans Rocky Raczkowski and Rob Steele came close to making it two more — but fell short.

Raczkowski, a businessman, Army Reserve officer and former state lawmaker from Farmington Hills, lost to 9th District freshman Rep. Gary Peters of Oakland County's Bloomfield Township in the state's tightest congressional race. Steele, a cardiologist from Washtenaw County's Superior Township, finished surprisingly close behind 55-year Democratic incumbent John Dingell of Dearborn in southeastern Michigan's 15th District.

In fact, Raczkowski's tea party backing actually hurt him with some voters.

Jared Goldberg, a 26-year-old from Oakland County's West Bloomfield Township, checked off Peters' name, he said, in part because he was turned off by Raczkowski.

"I've looked at Rocky's platform. It's a tea party platform. He talks disparagingly about 'Obamacare,'" said Goldberg, a researcher at the University of Michigan Medical School. "I'm very much in favor of universal health care in this country, and whenever I read things like that I just cringe."

It's hard to say for sure how more moderate Republican candidates would have fared in these four Michigan districts considering the powerful anti-Democrat, anti-incumbent climate that swept the nation Tuesday. But it's evident the movement's energy drove voters eager to take the country in a different direction to the polls.

"The tea party ... probably affected every race, because it was the tea party that gave a voice, a face, a vehicle to the concern and the anger of the direction that this country was going in, and they also kept that in the spotlight," said Joan Fabiano of Holt, an organizer for Grassroots in Michigan, one of more than 50 groups in the state tied to the tea party movement.

Now that this election is over, tea party activists who worked to send Walberg and Benishek to Washington are counting on those congressmen sticking to their agenda.

"I expect that they will hold my feet to the fire," Walberg said.

First Published November 5, 2010, 8:34 p.m.