Congratulations to all the tea party-backed candidates who overcame a determined, partisan opposition to win their elections. The next campaign begins today. Because you must now overcome determined party insiders if this nation is going to be spared from fiscal disaster. 
 
 Many of the people who will be welcoming the new class of Senate conservatives to Washington never wanted you here in the first place. The establishment is much more likely to try to buy off your votes than to buy into your limited-government philosophy. Consider what former GOP senator-turned-lobbyist Trent Lott told the Washington Post earlier this year: "As soon as they get here, we need to co-opt them." 
 
 View Full Image Getty Images Tea Party-backed candidate Rand Paul won Kentucky's Senate seat . 
 
 Tim Phillips, President of Americans for Prosperity, explains the Republican wave. 
 
 Don't let them. Co-option is coercion. Washington operates on a favor-based economy and for every earmark, committee assignment or fancy title that's given, payback is expected in return. The chits come due when the roll call votes begin. This is how big-spending bills that everyone always decries in public always manage to pass with just enough votes. 
 
 But someone can't be bribed if they aren't for sale. Here is some humble advice on how to recognize and refuse such offers. 
 
 First, don't request earmarks. If you do, you'll vote for legislation based on what's in it for your state, not what's best for the country. You will lose the ability to criticize wasteful spending. And, if you dare to oppose other pork-barrel projects, the earmarkers will retaliate against you. 
 
 In 2005, Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) offered a measure to kill funding for the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere." Before the vote, Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.), an appropriator, issued a warning on the Senate floor. 
 
 "If we start cutting funding for individual projects, your project may be next," she said. "When Members come down to the floor to vote on this amendment, they need to know if they support stripping out this project, Senator Bond [a Republican appropriator] and I are likely to be taking a long, serious look at their projects to determine whether they should be preserved during our upcoming conference negotiations." 
 
 Paul Gigot explains the demise of the Pelosi Speakership. 
 
 The threat worked. Hardly anyone wanted to risk losing earmarks. The Senate voted 82-15 to protect funding for the Bridge to Nowhere. 
 
 Second, hire conservative staff. The old saying "personnel is policy" is true. You don't need Beltway strategists and consultants running your office. Find people who share your values and believe in advancing the same policy reforms. Staff who are driven by conservative instincts can protect you from unwanted, outside influences when the pressure is on. 
 
 Third, beware of committees. Committee assignments can be used as bait to make senators compromise on other matters. Rookie senators are often told they must be a member of a particular committee to advance a certain piece of legislation. This may be true in the House, but a senator can legislate on any matter from the Senate floor. 
 
 Fourth, don't seek titles. The word "Senator" before your name carries plenty of clout. All senators have the power to object to bad legislation, speak on the floor and offer amendments, regardless of how they are ranked in party hierarchy. 
 
 Election Night at Opinion Journal Visit WSJ.com on Tuesday night for live commentary from The Wall Street Journal editorial board. 
 
 Lastly, don't let your re-election become more important than your job. You've campaigned long and hard for the opportunity to go to Washington and restore freedom in America. People will try to convince you to moderate conservative positions and break campaign promises, all in the name of winning the next race. Resist the temptation to do so. There are worse things than losing an election—like breaking your word to voters. 
 
 At your swearing-in ceremony, you will, as all senators do, take an oath to "support and defend the Constitution." Most will fail to keep their oath. Doing these five things will help you maintain a focus on national priorities and be one who does. 
 
 Congress will never fix entitlements, simplify the tax code or balance the budget as long as members are more concerned with their own narrow, parochial interests. Time spent securing earmarks and serving personal ambitions is time that should be spent working on big-picture reforms. 
 
 When you are in Washington, remember what the voters back home want—less government and more freedom. Millions of people are out of work, the government is going bankrupt and the country is trillions in debt. Americans have watched in disgust as billions of their tax dollars have been wasted on failed jobs plans, bailouts and takeovers. It's up to us to stop the spending spree and make sure we have a government that benefits America instead of being a burden to it. 
 
 Tea party Republicans were elected to go to Washington and save the country—not be co-opted by the club. So put on your boxing gloves. The fight begins today. 
 
 Mr. DeMint is a Republican senator from South Carolina. ||||| Emerging from its first election with a string of major victories – and two glaring defeats – leaders of the tea party movement wasted no time claiming credit and taking names, signaling to the Republican establishment that they intend to remake the GOP, not merely help it regain power in Washington. 
 
 “Tonight, there’s a tea party tidal wave, and we’re sending a message to them!” tea party favorite Rand Paul proclaimed after being declared the winner of the Kentucky Senate race on Tuesday. 
 
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 The message he said he would deliver to the Senate, which he called “the world’s most deliberative body,” is “to deliberate upon this: The American people are unhappy with what’s going on in Washington” and have “come to take our government back!” 
 
 But many tea party organizers cautioned that the nascent movement has perhaps its toughest challenges ahead of it in keeping activists engaged and newly elected champions true to the small government principles of the movement. And, as usual in the diffuse and decentralized movement, there are sharp differences about how to proceed. 
 
 But such concerns were secondary Wednesday morning as organizers savored the role the anti-establishment grassroots uprising – borne less than two years ago – had played in reclaiming the House of Representatives for the GOP. 
 
 And while there was some hand-wringing over the fact that the defeat of two of the tea party’s most high profile candidates, Sharron Angle in Nevada and Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, helped keep Republicans from also taking the Senate, tea party organizers said the GOP wouldn’t have even have been within striking distance had it not been for the movement. 
 
 “We succeeded far beyond what anybody would have predicted. We’ve completely changed the complexion of American politics,” said Sal Russo, a veteran GOP operative who founded the Tea Party Express political action committee, which played a critical role in securing the GOP nominations for Angle, O’Donnell, and Joe Miller of Alaska, whose race has not been decided. 
 
 “I’m satisfied with our candidates,” he said. “They were right on the issues and in concert with the zeitgeist of our times.” 
 
 He and other key tea party organizers are already looking ahead to the 2012 presidential race (with Russo signaling a preference for Sarah Palin), and also plotting primary challenges against Republican lawmakers deemed to be out of step with the movement’s small government principles.
– Tea Party candidates may have rattled the Democrats, but it's the old-line Republicans who could be in for a shellacking now. The upstarts heading to DC are already eying targets painted on the backs of GOP legislators out of step with their small government policies—such as Utah's Orrin Hatch and Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas, notes Politico. Those friendly with the Tea Partiers, on the other hand, are enjoying a huge boost in popularity. "People in the Senate have been in touch with me to try to figure out ways in which we can have a better working relationship,” said Tea Party supporter Rep. Dick Armey. "All of a sudden, I'm a matchmaker." Tea Partiers are determined to avoid being seduced by pork-barrel strategies, according to leaders. "The establishment is much more likely to try to buy off your votes than to buy into your limited-government philosophy," warned fervent Tea Party supporter Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who cruised to reelection. But, he adds: "Tea Party Republicans were elected to save the country—not be co-opted by the club. So put on your boxing gloves. The fight begins today.”