The Tea Party Movement (TPM) is often discussed in terms of Americans for Prosperity, the Republican Party, and other well‐funded, national groups. Yet, grounded ethnographic research reveals vibrant, independent, local organizations, which, while they do draw on nationally disseminated cultural images and discourses, are far from simple agents of the larger organizations and media. Relying on eighteen months of fieldwork among eight local Tea Party groups in central North Carolina, I argue that these small, locally situated groups are crucial components in the TPM and its effects. Using theoretical concepts from social movement studies and social practice theory, I analyze the ways personal and Internet‐based social networks, media, and elite organizations are cocreating new political subjects, and demonstrate the importance of local, face‐to‐face political organizations in cultivating and animating these subjects. I suggest that localized political groups are important for long‐lasting political transformations. [social movements, right wing movements, identity and agency, United States, American South]