Tea Party's Last Real Senate Hope Loses

Pat Roberts prevails in Kansas
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 6, 2014 1:55 AM CDT
Updated Aug 6, 2014 5:43 AM CDT
Tea Party's Last Real Senate Hope Loses
Milton Wolf, right, calls voters at his campaign headquarters yesterday.   (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Another big win for the GOP establishment: Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts has defeated Tea Party challenger Milton Wolf, ending what Politico calls "conservatives' last, best hope to topple an incumbent GOP senator this year." Roberts, who has been in Congress since 1981 and a senator since 1997, had a 48% to 41% lead over Wolf with 95% of precincts reporting, according to the AP. The campaign of Wolf, a radiologist and a distant cousin of President Obama, took a hit early this year when it emerged that he had posted patient X-rays on Facebook and joked about them.

"Tonight, we reaffirmed what we all knew. We are Kansas-loving conservative Republicans, and we are in charge of our own future," Roberts told supporters. "My posse did not flinch, even though there were times when their candidate—me—stepped on our message." In other GOP primaries yesterday, a Tea Party congressman in eastern Michigan was defeated by a lawyer backed by business groups, while a libertarian-leaning congressman in the western part of the state defeated a business-backed challenger, the New York Times reports. (More Milton Wolf stories.)

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