R-Minn.
Last year's rank: New
The Tea Party has been a difficult force for elected leaders to harness, but Bachmann has done it as well anyone, leveraging her self-appointed status as a tribune of the movement to vault into the mix for the Republican presidential nomination. Maintaining her momentum has been trickier -- her bid has steadily lost altitude since her August victory in the Iowa straw poll.
NEXT: Debbie Wasserman Schultz