Members of Congress from Kansas, all Republicans, have stayed relatively quiet since Donald Trump effectively became their party’s nominee for president.
The four members of the House of Representatives and two senators didn’t issue congratulatory news releases, tweets or Facebook posts. The Kansas Republican Party, which will send 40 delegates to the July convention in Cleveland, where Trump will be nominated, had little to say about him.
Those who did offer their support either didn’t say Trump’s name or offered tepid endorsements.
Rep. Mike Pompeo “will support the nominee of the Republican Party because Hillary Clinton cannot be president of the United States,” said T.W. Arrighi, a spokesman.
“He wasn’t my first choice,” said Rep. Kevin Yoder, who also cited Clinton as the reason for backing Trump.
He wasn’t my first choice.
Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kan.
Their leader in Washington, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, wasn’t ready to say even that much.
“I’m not there right now,” Ryan said Thursday on CNN.
Democrats, meanwhile, wasted little time linking Kansas Republicans to Trump.
“A vote this year for Kevin Yoder is a vote for Donald Trump,” said Kerry Gooch, executive director of the Kansas Democratic Party.
All Kansas members except for Sen. Pat Roberts are up for re-election in the fall, and they will share the ticket with Trump, who got only 23 percent of the vote in the state’s March Republican caucus.
“We can’t have our elected federal officials supporting someone who will further the divisive atmosphere and encourage hatred and violence,” Gooch said.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who won the Kansas caucus with 48 percent of the vote, ended his presidential bid late Tuesday after losing to Trump in Indiana.