TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts fended off an aggressive challenger Tuesday in the Kansas Republican primary, dealing another blow to a national tea party movement that has targeted longtime Washington incumbents.
Milton Wolf, 43, a Leawood radiologist making his first run for public office, failed to pull the upset in the race against Roberts, 78, whose political dates to the late 1960s, when he was a congressional aide.
After surviving the primary, Roberts is a huge favorite to win his fourth, six-year term in November. Republicans enjoy a nearly 20 percentage-point advantage among registered voters and have won every U.S. Senate race in the past 80 years.
Wolf has said he is a distant relative of President Barack Obama but stresses his strong opposition to the Democrat’s signature health care overhaul. He said his mother and Obama’s grandmother were cousins, describing himself as a second cousin, once removed, of the president. He acknowledges that they did not meet until after Obama was elected.
Later, he attacked Roberts as a career politician out-of-touch with Kansas.