A Leawood physician who is a distant cousin of President Barack Obama is challenging Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts in the Republican primary. Milton Wolf is taking on the incumbent with strong support from Tea Party conservatives.
Wolf’s first campaign event filled a large ballroom in south Overland Park, Kan. Tuesday evening. It featured live performers and a slick biographical video.
Wolf is blood relative of the president through Obama’s mother, and that has helped lift his profile in conservative media outlets. He is a commentator on Fox News and blogs for the Washington Times.
Wolf says he’s ready to go fight for conservative Christian issues, and against Obamacare alongside Tea Party Senators.
“I have a message tonight for Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee,” said Wolf at his kickoff event. “The battle is joined! Your Kansas reinforcements are on the way!”
Wolf wants to scrap the tax system entirely, dismantle the IRS, and pay for all government functions with a sales tax. He is vehemently pro-gun, anti-abortion and loathes Obamacare, but the thing Wolf says really bugs him is Republicans not sticking to their convictions.
“Our party was supposed to stand up for limited government and lower taxes. Our party was supposed to stand for the free market,” says Wolf. “But our party failed.”
Wolf says incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts has failed. Roberts, after all, backed the bi-partisan compromise legislation that raised the nation’s borrowing limit and averted default in the last debt ceiling crisis a couple of years ago.
But, first Wolf has to beat Pat Roberts, a conservative, three-term Senator who has raised more than $1.5 million for the campaign. Roberts has also locked up almost all the major GOP endorsements in Kansas, including those of Gov. Sam Brownback and Secretary of State Kris Kobach.
The race so far lacks a Democratic contender. The last time Kansas sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate was 1932.
