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Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) Speaks at Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters last month. (Cliff Owen / AP)
Sen. Pat Roberts, the French Republican of Kansas who has worked closely with Democrats to help the country's farmers and protect food stamps for millions of low-income Americans, announced Friday that he would not seek to to be reelected in 2020.
"As a senator, he will serve the rest of his tenure fighting for Kansas in this troubled time. However, I will not be a candidate in 2020 for a fifth term in the Senate, "said Roberts, his wife Franki, moved beside him.
Roberts' retirement plan comes just weeks after Lamar Alexander, The long-time GOP senator, known for his bipartisanship, said he would not seek re-election.
Roberts recently enacted an $ 867-billion agricultural bill, with the measure Ensuring the support of all Democrats in the Senate, a remarkable achievement in a torn Congress: The bill allocates billions of dollars in subsidies to American farmers, legalizes hemp, strengthens farmers' markets and rejects the stricter restrictions imposed by Republicans at home on food stamps.
Conservatives were unhappy with the provisions of the bill on food stamps, and the Trump administration had signaled its intention to cut them off without congressional approval.
Roberts alluded to his bipartisan work at a press conference in Manhattan, Kuwait, where he announced his decision.
"I have a lot of confidence in Senator [Debbie] Stabenow," Roberts said about the Senate Committee's ranking of agriculture on Democrats, boasting of having adopted his Eighth Bill on Agriculture.He also called the Committee "the least partisan committee in Washington."
Roberts, 82, said he spoke to former Senator Bob Dole before making his announcement and that 95-year-old Dole had joked that he wanted to occupy an open seat in the Senate 19659010] The Republicans will have the preference to take the seat of Roberts The Democrats have no more seat in the Senate at Kansas since 1932.
Republicans close to the Senate leaders expressed a keen interest on Friday for the possibility of convincing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to run for the open seat as a former Congressman of Kansas and a staunch ally of President Trump, the Republicans felt that Pompeo would have the potential to eliminate the GOP field and avoid at his party a potentially messy primary fight.
It was not clear though whether Pompeo had any interest. He showed no public sign of wanting to leave his post. The Republicans who mentioned Pompeo spoke under cover of anonymity to be able to express their point of view on the race frankly.
Among other names that surfaced, Kansas State Secretary Kris Kobach, a Trump ally who lost the race for governorship last year. ; Representative Roger Marshall; and Governor Jeff Colyer, whom Kobach defeated at the governorship primary.
However, the state has undergone a political change in recent months, electing Democratic Governor Laura Kelly to head Kobach. Since then, several Republican lawmakers have changed party, frustrated by Trump and the GOP.
[ In conservative Kansas, newly elected gay legislators try to make history]
In 2014, Roberts faced his first serious electoral test since arriving in the Senate. Milton Wolf, a physician and a distant relative of Barack Obama who was active in the tea movement, mounted a major Republican challenge against Roberts. He blamed Roberts for voting for an increase in the debt ceiling without repealing the Affordable Care Act and having applied for a fourth term when it was over. was committed to serving only two.
"Our party was supposed to fight for a limited and lower government. taxes, "said Wolf in announcing his long-shot campaign." Our party failed. "
Roberts is spending a lot of time building his 2014 campaign and defeating Wolf by only seven percentage points – a margin lower than the one expected by polls or party strategists, after a campaign revealing that the senator no longer owned a house in Kansas.
That emboldened Democrats, whose Senate candidate left the race and approved Greg Orman, an independent businessman.National Republicans rushed to help Roberts, pushing him to a 10-point win – the smallest victory of all Kansas senators in 40 years, but enough to put it back in the Senate
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