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Massachusetts senator-elect Scott Brown arrives on Capitol Hill. The Republican won an upset this week over Democrat Martha Coakley.Alex Wong

They are named after the Boston Tea Party and experienced their biggest victory to date in Massachusetts this week, but a growing political movement might have its moment of truth in Nashville next month.

The National Tea Party Convention will be held in the Tennessee capital, bringing together a fledgling group of political activists who have suddenly found themselves wielding an unexpected degree of power in U.S. politics.

Until this week, the Tea Party movement was seen as a fringe group, with small pockets of activists united only by their anti-tax sentiment and vocal distrust of Washington.

But the group has now been credited with helping to elect Republican Scott Brown to the U.S. Senate in the historically liberal state of Massachusetts, by mobilizing its passionate activists to his side.

"It was a miracle moment," Christen Varley, founder of the Greater Boston Tea Party, told The Boston Globe of her group's involvement in the campaign. "Boom, he went from zero on the radar screen to what everyone was paying attention to."

Last year, the Tea Party groups were best known for nationwide protests on April 15 - tax day - and an anti-government demonstration in Washington on Sept. 12 encouraged by right-wing pundit Glenn Beck. They have denounced President Barack Obama as a socialist and celebrated far-right figures such as Sarah Palin and Mr. Beck as an ideal presidential ticket, while refusing to label themselves as a Republican splinter group. But they are also drawing widespread support from disparate groups disillusioned by both major U.S. political parties. And their opposition to government spending and support for states' rights are bringing financial contributions to their cause.

But the Tea Party does not have a leader or even a coherent identity.

Online, you can find the Tea Party Nation, TeaPartyExpress.org and TeaParty.org.

Dale Robertson, head of TeaParty.org, claims upward of seven million members, but other self-proclaimed Tea Partiers deny he is their leader. He has appeared in public with signs using racist language to equate Congress with a slave owner and the taxpayer as a slave.

Keli Carender, a Seattle Tea Party activist who will speak at the Nashville convention, says she believes the group defies centralized leadership.

"If we believe the government should be decentralized, it seems to me that our movement shouldn't be centralized either," she said. "I think that's what makes it a real grassroots movement, and I'd like to see it stay that way."

She will address the convention about the importance of transparency within the group, and acknowledges the Tea Party is already experiencing infighting and accusations of profiteering.

The organizers of the convention, Judson and Sherry Phillips, are charging hundreds of dollars to attend, and have barred media access.

Some Tea Party activists have accused the couple of exploiting the movement for profit, and Ms. Carender worries about a subsequent loss of credibility for her group.

"If people become cynical about it, we won't be able to get the same enthusiasm," she said.

Leland Baker, author of the e-book Tea Party Revival: The Conscience of a Conservative Reborn, said activists must focus on the group's five main priorities: constitutional compliance; smaller government; state and individual rights; and lower taxes.

"There is no Tea Party, per se. There's hundreds of Tea Parties," he said. "The only consensus we need is on the next president."

But politicians remain wary about labelling themselves as Tea Party candidates, even as the GOP worries about alienating the potentially powerful force. Marco Rubio, who is taking on Charlie Crist in the Republican Party's Senate primary in Florida, is seen as a Tea Party candidate but has been careful about connecting himself to the group in official campaign literature.

Ms. Carender believes the Tea Party mindset will make it hard to support any specific candidate for long.

"I don't like any politicians really," she said. "It doesn't matter how charming they are, at some point they're going to disappoint you."

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