While some national pundits, usually of the liberal stripe, have casually dismissed the Tea Party movement as a fading phenomenon over the last year, Sharron Angle and Ken Miller say they are in for a surprise.

Angle, who got national attention in her unsuccessful 2010 challenge to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada, was in Kalispell Thursday with Miller, the candidate she has endorsed to be governor of Montana.

“If you think it’s dead, you’ll be surprised” by this year’s elections, said Angle, who described the Tea Party as an organic, dispersed movement that is often misportrayed.

The movement came alive on Tax Day in 2009. Small groups of conservatives have long protested on April 15, but that year was different.

“Instead the handful of 30 people, we had hundreds of thousands,” she said — and that’s when people realized they weren’t a small minority.

“It’s an awakening. It’s a Renaissance movement,” she said, adding that while Tea Party groups are still largely unorganized and unconnected to one another, they are numerous in every state.

And instead of holding rallies over the last couple years, Tea Party enthusiasts have been getting educated and highly involved in campaigns, often running for public office themselves.

“You’re not seeing them protest anymore, you’re seeing them at work,” said Angle, who was one of the first to be considered a Tea Party candidate.

In her case, she lost to Reid by a 50-45 percent margin, a surprisingly strong showing. She said she faced aggressive and often hostile media coverage while her opponent didn’t get the same treatment. That resulted in her becoming something of a celebrity overnight, and it generated an outpouring of support from Tea Partiers across the country.

“That was just the nature of the race. ... It was the highest-profile race of that [election] cycle,” Angle said, adding that since then, the Tea Party has surged.

She cited the defeat of “establishment” Republican Jon Bruney in Nebraska by insurgent challenger Deb Fisher, and the defeat of longtime Sen. Richard Lugar by state Treasurer Richard Mourdock in Indiana as recent examples of Tea Party influence. There have been similar results in many other state and local races, she said.

Angle said her campaign had “stellar” support from Montanans who wanted to see Reid defeated, some of them traveling to Nevada to participate in her campaign.

One of those supporters brought Miller to her attention, she said, and she subsequently carefully examined his positions and record along with others among the seven Republicans running for governor in Montana.

She endorsed Miller several months ago.

“I saw that he spoke constitutional principles, but he voted that way, too,” when he served in the Montana Legislature, she said.

Both Miller and Angle succinctly describe Tea Party values as being protective of constitutional principles and freedoms and advocating for limited government and fiscal responsibility.

Miller, who considers Tea Party voters to be among his supporters, said that message is often distorted.

“I think there’s a calculated attempt to get it defined as something other than what it is,” he said.

Miller held a campaign event at the Red Lion Hotel Thursday night in Kalispell, with Angle as the featured speaker.

With only a few days left before the June 5 primary election, Miller said he’s confident in his campaign.

“But campaigns with so many candidates, you can never be sure, so we’re going to be hitting it hard,” he said, urging voters to call him personally with any questions at (406) 670-8318.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.