Charles Patrick Roberts (born April 20, 1936) is a retired American politician and journalist who served as a United States senator from Kansas from 1997 to 2021.

[citation needed] Roberts was a reporter and editor for several Arizona newspapers between 1962 and 1967,[7] when he joined the staff of Republican Kansas Senator Frank Carlson.

[10] In the general election, Roberts defeated Thompson by 652,677 votes (62.02%) to 362,380 (34.44%), almost certainly helped by the presence of former Kansas Senator Bob Dole atop the ticket as the Republican presidential nominee.

Roberts was unopposed in the Republican primary and defeated the Democratic nominee, former Congressman Jim Slattery, in the general election by 727,121 votes (60.06%) to 441,399 (36.46%).

Roberts was a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, chairing the Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities.

This subcommittee oversaw the military's work in the area of homeland security and the efforts to prevent proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

After winning the 2008 Presidential election, Barack Obama nominated Tom Daschle for United States Secretary of Health and Human Services.

In March 2009, Roberts was one of fourteen senators to vote against a procedural move that essentially guaranteed a major expansion of a national service corps.

In an interview shortly after the nomination, Roberts was asked if he would vote for Sotomayor to avoid being called a "bigot" and answered, "I’m a Marine and nothing much scares me.

In June 2016, the "Roberts GMO bill" which had come out of the Committee on ANF was proposed as an amendment to Public Law 114-214 by Mitch McConnell.

In September 2020, with less than two months to the next presidential election, Roberts supported an immediate vote on President Trump's nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy caused by the death of justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Previously in March 2016, around seven months before the next presidential election, Roberts argued that President Obama's Supreme Court nominee should not be considered by the Senate, as the process would be "rushed", and that this was "about giving the American people and the next president a role in selecting the next Supreme Court justice" via the upcoming presidential election.

[25] While participating in negotiations over the Republican-sponsored American Healthcare Act, Roberts was asked by Alice Ollstein if he supported a proposed revision to mandated coverage in the bill.

[29] Senate Republican Conference Roberts is anti-abortion,[30] opposes same-sex marriage,[31] and denied Americans the right to know about GMO foods as part of Public Law 114-214.

[35][36][37][38][39][40] It was noted that the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association, the National Academy of Sciences and "the concerted advocacy of 107 concerned Nobel laureates" all were in favour of GMO foods.

"[43] Roberts voted to confirm Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior, to exclude oil and gas smokestacks from mercury regulations, and to reclassify the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a Cabinet department.

[44] In 2012, Roberts introduced an amendment that would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling for oil and approve the Keystone XL Pipeline.

[51] Roberts's refusal to lift his hold on the nomination until President Obama promised to never move anyone from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp to Fort Leavenworth drew criticism on the Senate floor from Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, who noted that the United States Secretary of the Army has no control over the detainees.

The second half, according to language voted on by the full Committee, consists of five parts including: whether public statements and reports and testimony regarding Iraq by U.S. Government officials made between the Gulf War period and the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom were substantiated by intelligence information; the postwar findings about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and weapons programs and links to terrorism and how they compare with prewar assessments; prewar intelligence assessments about postwar Iraq; any intelligence activities relating to Iraq conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group (PCTEG) and the Office of Special Plans within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; and the use by the Intelligence Community of information provided by the Iraqi National Congress (INC).

A member of the House of Representatives at the time, Roberts voted against Ronald Reagan's 1986 immigration limited amnesty bill.

[53] In June 2018, Roberts was one of thirteen Republican senators to sign a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting a moratorium on the Trump administration family separation policy while Congress drafted legislation.

[58] Roberts has an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association of America (NRA) for his consistent, ongoing support of pro-gun legislation.

The NRA endorsed Roberts in the 2014 election; the NRA-Political Victory Fund chairman said, "Pat is the only ally and battle-tested candidate in this race who has consistently protected our Second Amendment freedoms.

[67] In December 2010, Roberts voted against the ratification of New START,[68] a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads as well as 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years along with providing a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when START I expired the previous year.

[70] In June 2017, Roberts voted against a resolution by Rand Paul and Chris Murphy that would block President Trump's $510 million sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia which made up a portion of the $110 billion arms sale Trump announced during his visit to Saudi Arabia the previous year.

[71][72] In March 2018, Roberts voted to table a resolution spearheaded by Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Mike Lee that would have required President Trump to withdraw American troops either in or influencing Yemen within the next thirty days unless they were combating Al-Qaeda.

[73] In July 2019, Roberts was one of sixteen Republican senators to send a letter to Acting Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought, Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin encouraging them to work with them to prevent a continuing resolution "for FY 2020 that would delay the implementation of the President's National Defense Strategy (NDS) and increase costs" and that the year long continuing resolution suggested by administration officials would render the Defense Department "incapable of increasing readiness, recapitalizing our force, or rationalizing funding to align with the National Defense Strategy (NDS)".

[76] The New York Times has reported that the house Roberts claims as his residence in Dodge City, Kansas, is actually owned and occupied by campaign contributors C. Duane and Phyllis Ross.