Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts to advise Trump on agriculture issues

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts has agreed to advise Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s campaign on agriculture issues.

The senator has been appointed to an agricultural advisory committee for the billionaire developer’s campaign, a Roberts aide confirmed Thursday. The group has yet to meet.

Roberts, a Republican from Dodge City, Kansas, serves as chairman of the U.S. Senate’s Agriculture Committee.

The Trump campaign apparently sought his help during the Republican National Convention because of his role on the committee and his experience with agriculture issues during his decades in Congress.

Roberts also served as chair of the Agriculture Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1990s.

Roberts hasn’t met Trump in person but endorsed him in a speech at the convention last month.

His support for Trump hasn’t wavered since, although a few of Roberts’ fellow Republicans in the Senate — most recently Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — have withdrawn their support for the GOP nominee over concerns about his controversial public statements and his fitness for office.

When voters pressed Roberts to explain his endorsement at a town hall meeting in Oskaloosa Public Library in Kansas on Wednesday, the senator stressed the importance of party unity in November’s elections.

“He’s the nominee, regardless of what you think of his opinion, or whatever, or whether I agree with him,” Roberts said, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal.

“He is unique, that’s for sure,” he said. “But I don’t think it does us any good to get into all this infighting back and forth over the nominee.”

This story was originally published August 11, 2016 at 11:37 AM with the headline "Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts to advise Trump on agriculture issues."