text: The Republican establishment’s latest triumph over tea party activists in a Senate primary this year — Pat Roberts’ narrower-than-expected win over challenger Milton Wolf on Tuesday night — came with a big lift from party headquarters in Washington. 
   
   Aided by national Republican forces, Roberts beat back Wolf, a radiologist and distant cousin of President Barack Obama, effectively thwarting conservatives’ last, best hope to topple an incumbent GOP senator in 2014. Assuming Sen. Lamar Alexander prevails in Thursday’s primary in Tennessee — he’s widely expected to defeat challenger Joe Carr — this will be the first cycle since 2008 when no incumbent Republican senator lost renomination. 
   
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   Roberts defeated Wolf, 48 percent to 41 percent; a pair of minor candidates combined for the remaining 11 percent of the vote. 
   
   Largely overlooked in the race was the fact that the National Republican Senatorial Committee is chaired by Roberts’ Kansas colleague, Sen. Jerry Moran, whom some far-right activists have threatened with a 2016 primary challenge. That made a win for the incumbent even more personal. 
   
   (Full primary election results) 
   
   The party made a strategic decision to focus on turning out supporters in Wolf’s home base. Wolf lives and works in Johnson County, in the suburbs of Kansas City, and he needed a healthy margin there to offset Roberts’ strength in the sprawling 1st Congressional District on the western side of the state, which he represented in the House for 16 years. 
   
   The NRSC sent six workers to the Kansas City area for the final 10 days, and they knocked on more than 10,000 doors in Johnson County alone, a party official said. A Washington phone bank set up by the NRSC also made more than 40,000 phone calls in the final three weeks. 
   
   Ultimately, Roberts fought Wolf to a virtual tie in Johnson County. Wolf took 45.7 percent to Roberts’ 45.4 percent, a 147-vote edge. 
   
   (Also on POLITICO: Who's up and who's down in the latest polls?) 
   
   Roberts said in his victory speech that his campaign reached more than 200,000 GOP households in the state through live telephone calls and door knocks, most multiple times, over the final three weeks. 
   
   The NRSC also sent its regional political director, Brittany Belt, into Kansas for the final three weeks before the primary; she focused on the early vote and worked with the campaign on messaging in the final weeks. 
   
   “Senator Roberts has served as a diligent check on Democrats’ push for ever expansive government and is a true conservative voice for our state,” Moran said in a statement celebrating Roberts’ win. 
   
   (Also on POLITICO: The latest race rating projections) 
   
   Roberts’ margin was narrower than expected. Recent polls had showed him crushing Wolf, a radiologist who attacked the incumbent from the right. 
   
   In a post-election speech, Roberts alluded to the bruising campaign and urged Republicans to refrain from similar infighting in future elections. 
   
   “The truth is, Republicans in Kansas and nationally cannot afford the kind of intraparty fratricide we have seen recently,” he said, according to prepared remarks. “Friends, we cannot afford to waste scarce resources and energy tearing ourselves apart. We cannot afford a fractured party. The stakes are too high.” 
   
   Wolf spent the campaign portraying Roberts, 78, as a creature of Washington, frequently questioning whether he truly resided in the state or merely parachuted in to fight for reelection. Roberts, the son of an Eisenhower-era Republican National Committee chairman, was a longtime Hill aide before winning election to Congress in 1980. 
   
   Wolf, a second cousin once removed of Obama, presented himself as a hard-line conservative and built his bid around an effort to undo Obamacare. His challenge to Roberts was his first run for office, and he won the backing of some conservative groups that have tried, but so far failed, to oust Senate incumbents. 
   
   “Sometimes … the best candidate doesn’t win,” said Jenny Beth Martin, chairwoman of Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund, which funded a late campaign TV ad attacking Roberts. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — Three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts edged out Milton Wolf in Kansas' primary Tuesday night as mainstream conservatives dealt another blow to the tea party movement. A GOP businessman swamped a first-term Michigan congressman, upending his re-election bid. 
   
   FILE - This, July 14, 2014, file photo shows Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., in Olathe, Kan., as he speaks at rally for Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. Senate and House incumbents in Kansas, Michigan and Missouri... (Associated Press) 
   
   FILE - This July 7, 2014 file photo shows 4th District GOP candidate Mike Pompeo in Wichita. Kansas' 4th District GOP primary pits incumbent Mike Pompeo of Wichita against the man who previously held... (Associated Press) 
   
   Republican David Trott, a candidate for Michigan's 11th congressional district, is seen outside his voting precinct on Aug. 5, 2014 in Birmingham, Mich. Trott is running against incumbent Kerry Bentivolio... (Associated Press) 
   
   FILE - This July 7, 2014 file photo shows 4th District GOP candidate candidate Todd Tiahrt in Wichita. Kansas' 4th District GOP primary pits incumbent Mike Pompeo of Wichita against the man who previously... (Associated Press) 
   
   Congressman John Conyers votes at Word of Power Ministry in Highland Park, Mich. on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014. Though because of re-districting, Conyers was unable to vote for himself. Two Republican congressmen... (Associated Press) 
   
   Milton Wolf, right, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Kansas, calls voters at his campaign headquarters on primary election day, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014, in Overland Park, Kan. Tea party-backed... (Associated Press) 
   
   Milton Wolf, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Kansas, waves to motorists outside a polling place on primary election day, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014, in Overland Park, Kan. Tea party-backed Wolf... (Associated Press) 
   
   With 79 percent of the precincts reporting, Roberts held a 48 percent to 41 percent advantage over Wolf, a radiologist and distant cousin of President Barack Obama who had argued that the incumbent wasn't conservative enough. Two other primary candidates combined for 11 percent of the vote. 
   
   The Senate's establishment is on a roll, with incumbents prevailing in Texas, Kentucky, South Carolina and Mississippi, though it took six-term Sen. Thad Cochran two tries before defeating Chris McDaniel, who is challenging the outcome. 
   
   Add Kansas to the list. 
   
   "Tonight, we reaffirmed what we all knew. We are Kansas-loving conservative Republicans, and we are in charge of our own future," Roberts told his backers. Alluding to his stumbles, the senator said, "My posse did not flinch, even though there were times when their candidate — me — stepped on our message." 
   
   The GOP establishment blames the tea party for costing it Senate control in 2010 and 2012 as outside candidates stumbled in the general election. Republicans need to net six seats to regain the Senate, and the party has taken no chances this election cycle, putting its full force behind incumbents and mainstream candidates. 
   
   Tuesday also offered competitive primaries in Michigan, Missouri and Washington state. Businessman and lawyer Dave Trott easily defeated Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, 66 to 34 percent, in Michigan's 11th Congressional District, a reversal of the recent political order of tea partyers targeting an establishment favorite. 
   
   Bentivolio, a part-time reindeer rancher, was often described as the "accidental" congressman, as he was elected in 2012 when former Rep. Thaddeus McCotter turned in fraudulent voter signatures for a ballot spot. Bentivolio became the third House incumbent to lose in the primary, joining Republican Reps. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the former majority leader, and Ralph Hall of Texas on the House casualty list. 
   
   He was unapologetic in defeat. 
   
   "This is only the beginning battle to take back our country and take back our party from crony capitalists," Bentivolio said in arguing that the status quo will have to change. 
   
   "I've seen behind the curtain and I know that the ideas of Ted Cruz and Rand Paul are winning," he added. 
   
   In Kansas, Republican two-term Rep. Tim Huelskamp, who has frustrated GOP leadership and his rural constituents over his votes against the farm bill, defeated Alan LaPolice, a farmer and educator, in a close race. 
   
   The four-state primary day launched a crowded stretch with Tennessee on Thursday, Hawaii on Saturday and Connecticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin next week. By month's end, voters will decide the Republican Senate nominee in a competitive race against Sen. Mark Begich in Alaska and the Democratic primary between Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz and Rep. Colleen Hanabusa. 
   
   The 78-year-old Roberts, a conservative, moved even farther right as he faced a tough re-election. The senator, who backed the nomination of former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be secretary of Health and Human Services, was one of the first to call for her resignation after the disastrous launch of the health care website last October. Roberts also voted against a U.N. treaty on the rights of the disabled in December 2012 despite the appeals of former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, who sat in a wheelchair in the well of the Senate. 
   
   Wolf argued that Roberts had spent too much time in Washington, owning a home in the nation's capital while merely renting in Kansas. Roberts didn't help his cause when he told a radio interviewer last month: "Every time I get an opponent — uh, I mean, every time I get a chance — I'm home." 
   
   In an interview on Topeka radio's WIBW NewsNow at Noon on Monday, Roberts said it was the "the height of absurdity" for people who want to replace him in Washington to criticize him for spending too much time there. 
   
   "You've got to go where the fight is," he said. "I have to work in Washington." 
   
   Wolf eagerly disavowed the policies of his cousin Obama and cast himself as a pure conservative. He had the backing of the Senate Conservatives Fund and several tea party groups. 
   
   But Wolf was dogged by X-rays of gunshot victims that he posted on a Facebook page with humorous comments. Wolf acknowledged the mistake and apologized, but Roberts made it an issue in campaign ads. 
   
   Roberts will face Democrat Chad Taylor in November in the solidly Republican state. 
   
   In one of the fiercest House GOP primaries, two-term Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo defeated Todd Tiahrt, who served eight terms in the House and was trying to return to Washington. 
   
   Two primaries in Michigan marked a turnabout from several years of widely heralded contests in which right-flank candidates have tried — sometimes successfully — to unseat Republican incumbents they perceive as not being conservative enough. 
   
   Bentivolio did not survive, but two-term Rep. Justin Amash did. 
   
   In the 3rd Congressional District in the southwest part of the state, Amash, who has challenged the GOP leadership, defeated Brian Ellis, a 53-year-old Grand Rapids businessman who owns an investment advisory firm and serves on the school board. 
   
   Amash is popular among libertarians for his challenges to the National Security Agency's surveillance of Americans. 
   
   Five of Missouri's eight House members easily dispatched their underfunded challengers. 
   
   In Washington state, former Washington Redskins player Clint Didier led a crowded field of 12 candidates vying to replace 10-term Rep. Doc Hastings, a Republican who is retiring. The two candidates who collect the most mail-in ballots advance to the general election, setting up what could be a Republican vs. Republican contest in the heavily GOP district in central Washington.
target: – Another big win for the GOP establishment: Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts has defeated Tea Party challenger Milton Wolf, ending what Politico calls "conservatives' last, best hope to topple an incumbent GOP senator this year." Roberts, who has been in Congress since 1981 and a senator since 1997, had a 48% to 41% lead over Wolf with 95% of precincts reporting, according to the AP. The campaign of Wolf, a radiologist and a distant cousin of President Obama, took a hit early this year when it emerged that he had posted patient X-rays on Facebook and joked about them. "Tonight, we reaffirmed what we all knew. We are Kansas-loving conservative Republicans, and we are in charge of our own future," Roberts told supporters. "My posse did not flinch, even though there were times when their candidate—me—stepped on our message." In other GOP primaries yesterday, a Tea Party congressman in eastern Michigan was defeated by a lawyer backed by business groups, while a libertarian-leaning congressman in the western part of the state defeated a business-backed challenger, the New York Times reports.