Charles Patrick Roberts

Rep-Kan.

Senate Incumbent

Born April 20, 1936

Biography

Charles Patrick "Pat" Roberts was born in Topeka, Kan., and resides in Dodge City, Kan. His father, the late Wes Roberts, was chairman of the Republican National Committee under President Dwight Eisenhower. His great-grandfather founded the weekly Oskaloosa Independent, Kansas' second-oldest newspaper. Roberts graduated from Holton (Kan.) High School in 1954 and received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Kansas State University in 1958. He served four years in the Marine Corps, 1958-62, completing service as a captain. He was publisher of a newspaper in Litchfield, Ariz., 1962-67, then was administrative assistant to the late U.S. Sen. Frank Carlson, 1967-68, and administrative assistant to the late U.S. Rep. Keith Sebelius, 1968-80. When Sebelius did not seek re-election in 1980, Roberts won the seat and was re-elected each two years through 1994. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1996, replacing the retiring Sen. Nancy Kassebaum, and drew no Democratic opposition to his bid for a second term. Roberts and his wife, Franki, have three children, David, Ashleigh, and Anne-Wesley.

Profile

Pat Roberts' long tenure in Congress was highlighted by his elevation to chairman of the House Agriculture Committee when Republicans took control of the House in January 1995.

As House Agriculture chairman, Roberts steered his "Freedom to Farm" bill through Congress and to President Clinton's signature, dramatically changing the nation's farm programs.

When Sen. Nancy Kassebaum announced in November 1995 that she would not seek election to a fourth six-year term, Roberts considered running for her seat then decided against it, saying shepherding the farm bill through Congress was too important for him to leave the agriculture chairmanship.

However, two months later, on Jan. 27, 1996, Roberts changed his mind and declared his candidacy for Republican nomination to Kassebaum's seat.

"Some people ask why I want to leave the chairmanship of the agriculture committee to become a senator," Roberts said. "I am not leaving anything. I am moving my podium to more effectively champion Kansas." He described his congressional voting record as "conservative but not dogmatic; independent but not reactionary...I have spent a congressional career fighting to cut government spending and balance the federal budget."

Roberts rolled to victory in 1996 with 62 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Sally Thompson.

In the Senate, he quickly established a profile on national security as a member of the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. As chairman of a new Armed Services subcommittee on emerging terrorist threats, Roberts warned more than two years before the Sept. 11 attacks of the threat of terrorist attacks on the United States and pressed for more coordination among agencies that prevent and respond to terrorism.

Roberts remained an influential farm policy voice, and as a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee sponsored of an overhaul of the federal crop insurance program that made crop insurance cheaper and more widely available. But Roberts' biggest farm policy success, the 1996 Farm Bill, suffered at the hands of Democratic leaders who took control of the Senate in 2001. Led by Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., they muscled through a 2002 Farm Bill rolling back much of Roberts' market-oriented vision. Roberts found himself voting against the farm bill, saying it failed "to provide assistance to producers when they need it most _ when there is no crop to harvest."

Besides the Armed Services, Intelligence and Agriculture committees, Roberts serves on the Senate Ethics Committee and Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

The American Conservative Union gave Roberts' 2001 voting record a score of 100 points out of a possible 100; the liberal Americans for Democratic Action gave him zero points.

Campaigns

When his boss of 12 years, the late Rep. Keith Sebelius, decided not to seek re-election in 1980, Pat Roberts was ready to enter the political ring himself.

Roberts won a three-way race for the Republican nomination in the sprawling 1st District of western Kansas in 1980, getting 56 percent of the vote, and then defeated Democratic state Rep. Phil Martin of Larned in the general election. Roberts received 62 percent of the vote. Roberts had a primary opponent in 1982, Charles Sellens, whom he dispatched by getting 86 percent of the vote, but never again was opposed in his party in winning re-election seven times.

In 1988, he had no Democratic opponent and in 1990 and 1994, the state Democratic Party filed someone from Topeka just to have a name on the primary ballot. Roberts won re-election for the eighth time in 1994, beating Terry Nichols of Topeka, who worked in state Democratic headquarters, by 75 percent to 25. In 1996, he won a seat to the U.S. Senate with 62 percent of the vote, defeating Democrat Sally Thompson.

Roberts' longtime colleague in the U.S. House, former Democratic Rep. Dan Glickman of Wichita, briefly considered a challenge of Roberts but bowed out after the Sept. 11 attacks, saying it was time for the nation to pull together. In the end, Roberts had no Democratic challenger and a clear shot at re-election.

Contact

To reach Charles Patrick Roberts or staff in Washington, call 202-224-4774, or in Kansas, call 316-227-2244. Email: pat_roberts@roberts.senate.gov. World Wide Web: www.senate.gov/~roberts/.