Conservative stalwarts Sens. Ted Cruz and Tom Coburn worked a boisterous Kansas crowd Thursday on behalf of fellow Republican Sen. Pat Roberts
— urging voters to rally around the incumbent.
"I’m here in Kansas because I know Pat Roberts," the Texas senator told a rally at the Wichita Area Builders Association,
The Hill reports.
"The two years I’ve served in the Senate, over and over again on fight after fight on conservative principles, Pat Roberts has stood up and reported for duty."
Oklahoma's retiring Coburn, who's also popular among tea party voters, added his support for Roberts' credentials, declaring: "I thank God every day he’s in the Senate."
The heavyweight support kicked off a four-day bus tour
Roberts plans across Kansas to energize voters in a campaign that has struggled, but is finally picking up steam.
"Kansas is the stopping line where we start taking our country back," Coburn told the crowd,
The Daily Caller reports.
Cruz conceded Roberts endured a bruising primary against challenger Milton Wolf, who was backed by several tea party groups
— but urged unity.
"That primary is over, and I want to speak to folks who are frustrated with Washington," Cruz said, The Hill reports. "If you’re frustrated with Washington, the answer is not to stay home and keep Harry Reid as majority leader."
Cruz also defended Roberts against the well-funded independent Greg Orman, who's running against him in a contest that is being closely watched as the GOP aims to win Senate control.
The Hill noted Cruz had raised money earlier in the year for the Madison Project, a conservative group that supported Wolf, who has yet to endorse Roberts in the general election.
Cruz noted when he went on a 21-hour filibuster to protest Obamacare last year, Roberts was one of only a handful of senators who came to the floor to support him. He also credited Roberts for standing up against legislation to expand gun background checks and his fight against comprehensive immigration reform passed by the Senate.
"When Barack Obama responded to the crisis at the border by proposing yet more lawless amnesty, Pat Roberts stood side by side with me fighting to end President Obama’s amnesty," he said.
Cruz slammed Orman as a Democrat masquerading as an independent.
"You see a person who’s cut a check to Barack Obama, to Hillary Clinton and Harry Reid, who tells you he’s independent," he chided.
The Hill reports some conservatives, however, are still waiting for Wolf's endorsement of the incumbent before they support him.
"I’m encouraging every conservative in Kansas, every person of faith in Kansas, every tea party activist ... to come out and vote for Pat Roberts," Cruz urged.
"Because if we don’t elect Pat Roberts, it makes the odds far too high that Harry Reid remains majority leader. We need to turn out people who are frustrated and understandably frustrated with Washington.
"The case that has to be made in the next 26 days to men and women across the country is there is a better way."
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