PAT ROBERTS

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly has signaled her efforts to appeal to moderate Republican and GOP-leaning independent voters whose support is necessary for her to win a tough reelection race in Kansas next year.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the House chamber for the Senate to consider objections to certify Electoral College votes, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. All 50 states have certified the electoral votes. Freshman Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has said he will challenge Pennsylvania's electoral votes. Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia were all pivotal states that Biden carried on his way to his 306-232 Electoral College win. McConnell, 78, has been the Republican leader since 2007 and is the longest-serving Senate GOP leader in history.

MINNEAPOLIS – The reelection defeat of U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson in Minnesota and some key retirements mean a shakeup is coming for the industry on Capitol Hill, with power likely to shift from the Midwest to the South and the coasts. Both the House and Senate agriculture committees will get new chairs, and there will be a new top Republican on the House panel. Fischbach plans to seek a seat on the Agriculture Committee, but she'll have to draw heavily on her legislative skills to have much of an influence as a freshman in the minority party. Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan is the only one of the top four agriculture committee leaders returning in 2021. Neither Roberts nor Rep. Michael Conaway of Texas, the ranking Republican in the House committee, sought reelection.

Less than two weeks from an Election Day that will determine Senate control, each party is throwing late money at an up-for-grabs Democratic seat in Michigan. The Senate Majority PAC, a political committee aligned with the chamber's Democratic leaders, has canceled its remaining $1.2 million in spending against GOP Sen. Cory Gardner in Colorado, sensing victory. He's getting outspent 3-1,” said GOP Sen. Pat Roberts, whose retirement is making the seat available. Besides Alabama, Michigan is the GOP's best chance at gaining a seat and thwarting Democrats' drive to a Senate majority. “It matters," agreed Poersch of Democrats' Senate Majority PAC, citing a shift in voters' sentiment over the final weeks of the 2016 campaign that helped Trump edge to victory.

Marshall is facing stiff competition from state Sen. Barbara Bollier in the race to fill an open Senate seat in Kansas. Republicans are sweating a race in a state where they haven’t lost a Senate race since 1932 and where Democrats have sometimes conceded contests by Labor Day. The coronavirus pandemic and Trump's unpopularity with many voters are also weighing on Kansas Republicans. The Senate race wasn’t supposed to be so hard for Republicans. The leaders feared Kobach, a conservative hardliner, would reprise his 2018 loss in the governor’s race to Democrat Laura Kelly and hand the Senate seat to the Democrats.

Confirmation hearings are set to begin Monday for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee giving Republicans one last chance to salvage their Senate majority by wresting attention away from the White House and its COVID-19 response and onto the GOP’s longtime goal of fashioning a conservative court. Only two GOP senators balked at quick confirmation. This time, it's much about securing his own legacy reshaping the judiciary into what allies call the “McConnell Court” as giving his majority a landing pad after a tumultuous four years with Trump. Having already bent Senate rules to allow 51-vote threshold to advance Supreme Court nominees, rather than 60 as was tradition, McConnell is now poised to usher a third Trump justice to confirmation. “It’s not going to be remembered as the McConnell Court,” said Stevens.

The final agreement gives the administration continued immediate authority to dole out Agriculture Department subsidies in the run-up to Election Day. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., retreated from an initial draft that sparked a furor with Republicans and farm-state Democrats. Trump announced a new $13 billion allotment of bailout funding at a political rally in Wisconsin last week. “The Trump Administration has proven they cannot be trusted to distribute payments fairly,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, top Democrat on the Agriculture Committee. But other Democrats, including endangered House incumbents in states like Iowa and Minnesota, pressed for the farm aid.

Top Democrats emerged from a 90-minute meeting Tuesday with Trump administration officials to declare more progress. We really went down, issue by issue by issue slogging through this. We agree that we want to have an agreement," Pelosi said. He added that an agreement on that issue could lead to further overall progress on the legislation, which remains stalled despite days of Capitol negotiations. The overall talks are grinding ahead slowly, though urgency is growing among Senate Republicans, several of whom face tough election races and are eager to deliver a bill before heading home to campaign this month.

Marshall's first tasks were quickly refilling his campaign treasury and rebuilding Republican unity after an often-bitter primary campaign. GOP leaders had feared that the Kansas seat would be in play if lightning-rod conservative Kris Kobach won the nomination after losing the 2018 Kansas governor's race. Trump, who had refused to intervene in the primary despite prodding from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, tweeted his Complete and Total Endorsement of Marshall early Wednesday morning. THE issue is who controls the Senate majority. Kelly Arnold, a former Kansas Republican Party chairman, predicted that Republicans will unite quickly behind Marshall because of the threat to the party's Senate majority.

Trump didnt intervene to help Rep. Roger Marshall in a crowded field, despite prodding from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others. Trump didnt intervene to help Rep. Roger Marshall in a crowded field, despite prodding from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others. The GOP already faces a potentially tough year in trying to retain its 53-47 Senate majority with competitive races in other states, including Arizona, Colorado and Maine. Counties could accept ballots until Friday so long as they were postmarked Tuesday, creating uncertainty that the GOP Senate primary would be decided before then. He also had the backing of 97-year-old political icon Bob Dole, the former U.S. Senate majority leader and 1996 GOP presidential nominee.

(AP Photo/John Hanna)HOLTON, Kan. Establishment Republican leaders are scrambling to pull out a win in a tense party battle for the nomination in the Kansas Senate race, and they won't be able to count on last-minute help from President Donald Trump. Trump's neutrality leaves the Kansas primary heading to a tight finish Tuesday under a barrage of attack ads from political action committees. Thats why the Senate race is so important in Kansas.Republican leaders have been trying to avoid a Kobach nomination for seven months, but the stakes have increased in recent weeks. The once-safe seat in a state where Republicans have won every Senate race since 1932 now looks shaky and a loss the GOP can't afford. In Kansas, Kobach has played up his ties to the president even without an endorsement.

But when Trump was caught bragging of sexual assault and seeking political help from Ukraine, the country was relatively comfortable. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told reporters Tuesday when asked whether Trump's use of force against peaceful protesters was the right thing to do. Even now, as they squirm about the president's suggestion of using the military to enforce the law, most Republicans aren't breaking with Trump. Defense Secretary Mike Esper, who allowed himself to be squarely at the center of Trump's photo op at St. Johns, scrambled. As of right now, Secretary Esper is still Secretary Esper, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during her midday briefing.

But when Trump was caught bragging of sexual assault and seeking political help from Ukraine, the country was relatively comfortable. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, told reporters Tuesday when asked whether Trump's use of force against peaceful protesters was the right thing to do. Even now, as they squirm about the president's suggestion of using the military to enforce the law, most Republicans aren't breaking with Trump. Defense Secretary Mike Esper, who allowed himself to be squarely at the center of Trump's photo op at St. Johns, scrambled. As of right now, Secretary Esper is still Secretary Esper, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said during her midday briefing.

It also left Marshall and Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state who lost the 2018 governor's race, as the top rivals in a GOP field of 11 candidates. Many Republicans fear that Kobach's nomination would put the seat in play even though Republicans have won every Senate election in Kansas since 1932. He said GOP voters know he strongly opposes abortion and dismissed the nervousness among some top Republicans about him. But Marshall pollster Robert Blizzard said Marshalls fundraising will improve with Pompeo officially out of the race. Marshall faces plans for $2.2 million in television ads attacking him by the national anti-tax, free-market group Club for Growth.

A moderator signals 30-seconds remaining to senate candidate Rep. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., right, during a GOP senatorial debate In Manhattan, Kan., Saturday, May 23, 2020. David Lindstrom, left, Susan Wagle, second from left, Kris Kobach, middle, and Bob Hamilton, second from right, share the debate stage. With the GOP worried about keeping its U.S. Senate majority, the party doesn't need a money-pit race in Kansas when Republicans have won every U.S. Senate race there since 1932. Marshall touted his work on the House Agriculture Committee in four years in Congress and endorsements from the Kansas Farm Bureau and Kansas Livestock Association. Lindstrom also described himself as a businessman-outsider, but he has served on an elected community college board and the Kansas Turnpike Authority.