‘We took the hill,’ Sen. Pat Roberts says after GOP win in Kansas

GOP Sen. Pat Roberts won a fourth term in the Senate on Tuesday, pulling out a win in what proved to be an unusually tough race for the Republicans in the GOP-dominated midterm election.

After a close, roller-coaster campaign, the 78-year-old incumbent defeated businessman and independent candidate Greg Orman handily.

With votes still pouring in, he celebrated at a Republican watch party, declaring, “No, we weren’t dragged across the finish line. We crossed the finish line and we took the hill!”

News of Roberts’ victory came just as Republicans officially seized control of the Senate, snagging seats in North Carolina, Georgia and other key states. The GOP candidate had argued for weeks that the Senate could hinge on Kansas. He took credit Tuesday for the victory.

“We did it, Kansas.... We delivered,” he said.

Not delivering in this ruby-red state would have been a major embarrassment for the GOP and a shocking end to Roberts’ more than 30 years in Congress.

The senator faced the fight of his political life after his Democratic challenger abruptly withdrew and left him in a head-to-head match against a hard-to-pin-down Washington outsider who promised problem solving and an end to political gridlock.

In the gubernatorial race, Gov. Sam Brownback brushed aside a backlash against his conservative policies, the Associated Press projected, defeating Democrat and state House Minority Leader Paul Davis.

The election had been framed as a referendum on Brownback. He had pushed through the largest income tax cut in state history, made Kansas’ tough antiabortion laws even tougher, ended teacher tenure, expanded gun rights, cut thousands of government jobs and eliminated arts funding. Parents’ groups rebelled at the cost to local schools.

Brownback also angered some in his own party when he took the unprecedented step of campaigning against several moderate Republican lawmakers, replacing them with legislators more tailored to his conservative mold.

Roberts said Tuesday that he’d heard the message from his brush with retirement.

“I’ve heard my marching orders,” he told the crowd. “I will be bold. I will be conservative and I will be constructive. And I promise you this: We will get things done.”

After a rocky start, Roberts used his Washington ties to right his campaign in the final weeks. The conservative Republican relied on big-name surrogates of all political stripes, including Kentucky firebrand Sen. Rand Paul, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former GOP presidential hopeful and Kansas politics elder statesman Sen. Bob Dole.

Roberts and the GOP heavyweights blasted Orman as a Democrat in disguise, a bruising charge in this state, and argued that control of the Senate could come down to Kansas. Orman declined to say which party he would back if elected, suggesting he could switch allegiances based on the issues.

The threat that a Roberts loss could keep Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in power was another argument used to persuade Kansas voters to remain in the GOP fold. Kansans have elected Republicans to the Senate since 1938.