Pat Roberts

Pat Roberts spent 40 years representing Kansas in Congress. He served eight terms in the US House, from 3 January 1981 to 2 January 1997, before moving to the Senate. A Republican, he chaired the House Agriculture Committee during the 104th Congress, his final two years in The House.

Roberts served [four Senate terms](https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/20465) from 3 January 1997 to 3 January 2021. He won his first Senate election in 1996 and was re-elected in 2002, 2008 and 2014. His Senate committee chairmanships included Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Intelligence, and Ethics. He did not seek re-election in 2020.

Before winning office himself, Roberts worked for Senator Frank Carlson and then Representative Keith Sebelius. Born in Topeka in 1936, he graduated from Kansas State University in 1958. He served as a captain in the US Marine Corps from 1958 to 1962 and worked as a newspaper publisher before joining congressional staff.