Roberts Is Going Far Right In Kansas Senate Race — But Will It Work?

Tea party challenger Milton Wolf, left, confronts U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, right, during a walking tour of downtown Emporia on Wednesday, July 30,2 014, interrupting the Roberts’s campaign stop to call attention to h... Tea party challenger Milton Wolf, left, confronts U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, right, during a walking tour of downtown Emporia on Wednesday, July 30,2 014, interrupting the Roberts’s campaign stop to call attention to his refusal to have debates ahead of the Republican primary in Kansas. Roberts remains favored to win the Aug. 5 election and a fourth, six-year term in the November general election, but Wolf, a Leawood radiologist, contends he’s closing the gap between them.(AP Photo/Emporia Gazette, Dustin Michelson) MORE LESS
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As he faces a strong independent challenger, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) is shuffling to his right. He has been deploying more heated rhetoric, invoking the specter of “national socialism” at a campaign event. He has been making calls to tea party leaders to galvanize support, after he nearly lost to one of their own, Milton Wolf, in his primary this year. Sarah Palin has appeared on the stump.

But will it be enough?

As further proof of Roberts’s precarious standing, rumors were circulating last week that Wolf might actually endorse independent candidate Greg Orman. Wolf quashed those rumors on Twitter — but he didn’t turn around and endorse the Republican candidate either. For now, he said that he has no plans to make an endorsement.

Wolf’s endorsement would have been a big boon for Roberts after he narrowly beat the tea party challenger, who is also a distant cousin of President Barack Obama and compared the president to Adolf Hitler, 48 percent to 41 percent in the August primary.

Wolf has a penchant for outlandish rhetoric; he once tweeted: “Other than killing Jews, what domestic policy of the Nazis do today’s American liberals oppose?” Now, with Orman holding a 1-point advantage in the race, according to the TPM PollTracker average, Roberts is upping the ante in his own statements.

“We have to change course because our country is heading for national socialism,” Roberts said at a campaign event last week. “That’s not right. It’s changing our culture. It’s changing what we’re all about.”

And Roberts is seeking out those disaffected Wolf voters, according to the Wichita Eagle. He has been making personal calls to some of the tea party groups that backed his primary challenger. But the effect of that outreach, as Wolf’s refusal to endorse him shows, remains to be seen.

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  1. Avatar for sjk sjk says:

    Please dont change our White Christian Culture!

  2. That’s right, Pat…abandon the center.

    You know, the same strategy that has worked so well for Sam Brownback…

  3. Wolf’s endorsement would have been a big boon for Roberts after he narrowly beat the tea party challenger, who is also a distant cousin of President Barack Obama and compared the president to Adolf Hitler, 48 percent to 41 percent in the August primary.

    Well if he only compared the president to Hitler by 48 percent to 41 percent, that’s not so bad. Many Tea Partiers have said worse, including 100 percent comparisons.

  4. BTW Pat, the old “National Socialism” bugaboo only works with people your age.

    It’s like he’s running for office in 1957.

  5. When you are wrong and your re-election is in doubt, roll out Hitler (Godwin’s Law) to the clueless knuckle-draggers and ignorant shit-kickers.
    I await Roberts directly calling Orman a “Baby-Killer” and “Terrorist-Supporter” and an “Un-American Secret-Muslim”.
    This of course just shows how low you can go in Kansas as long as you don’t touch the third-rail in Kansas politics: Saying anything bad about the Koch Bros. (that one will get you assailed by millions $$ in negative ads.)

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