GOP lawmaker passes on Kansas Senate primary challenge

by Jordain Carney - 04/25/16 12:03 PM ET

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kansas) is passing on a primary battle with Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), announcing Monday that he will run for reelection instead.

The Republican lawmaker said he decided against launching a primary challenge because he felt he didn’t have enough time to run a “‘Team Pompeo’ campaign.”

{mosads}”I have chosen not to enter the race for the U.S. Senate — and here’s why. The 85 days remaining before the first votes are cast plus my especially consuming commitments to current duties on the Benghazi Committee, the House Intelligence Committee and a new investigatory Intelligence Task Force will preclude the kind of campaign that Kansans deserve and of which they would be justifiably proud,” he said in a statement.

Pompeo’s decision comes after he toyed publicly for weeks with the idea of a primary challenge against Moran, including condemning Moran’s initial willingness to hold a vote on Merrick Garland, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee.

He added Monday that Moran’s “waffling” on the Supreme Court was what led him to consider running for Senate.

“I started exploring a potential run for the United States Senate for this same reason: conflicting messages were sent about considering President Obama’s liberal Supreme Court nominee that would change the court for the worse for decades to come. The next generation deserves better,” he said.

Moran, who opposes Garland’s nomination, sparked a conservative firestorm last month after he initially backed moving forward with the president’s pick. A Moran aide told CNN earlier this month that the senator does not support a hearing for Garland.

While Pompeo noted Monday that he will instead run for reelection to his House seat, he took a parting shot at “legacy Republican leadership.”

“In just the past three weeks … former federal sleuths were hired to investigate me and my family. This same campaign essentially attempted to extort Kansas elected officials into endorsing him, and ‘announced’ endorsements that did not exist — I could go on and on,” he said.

Senate Republicans are defending 24 seats in November. Without a primary challenge, Moran is expected to easily win reelection.

Tags Jerry Moran