ROXANA HEGEMAN, Associated Press

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A national tea party group that derided U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts during Kansas’ bitter Republican primary race is now backing him in the general election.

Leaders of the Tea Party Express made the announcement Monday in Wichita. Roberts says he is pleased with the endorsement, saying the tea party activists “have fire in the belly.”

Roberts won less than 50 percent of the vote in defeating tea party favorite Milton Wolf in the August GOP primary. The three-term Senate incumbent is now in a tight race with independent Greg Orman.

Orman’s campaign says that Roberts’ embrace of what it called extremists like Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Express is more evidence that Roberts is part of a broken political system.