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What's President Obama's cousin doing on the Kansas ballot?

Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts (R) faces an unusual challenger in Tuesday's GOP primary: a distant cousin of President Obama's. Here's how they're related.

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Charlie Riedel/AP
Milton Wolf, a Republican candidate for the US Senate in Kansas, runs alongside his campaign bus at a parade Saturday in Gardner, Kan.

If Milton Wolf of Kansas has his way Tuesday, he will be best known for unseating a three-term senator, Pat Roberts 鈥 and he鈥檒l be the new hero of the tea party.

Thus far this year in GOP primaries, the movement is batting .000 in its efforts to unseat an incumbent Republican senator. After failing, barely, to take out Sen. Thad Cochran (R) of Mississippi in June, national tea party groups now see Kansas as their best shot at victory. But it鈥檚 still a longshot. In the , taken in July, Dr. Wolf trailed Senator Roberts by 20 points.

Yes, we know: Soon-to-be-ex-Rep. Eric Cantor, the former Republican leader in the House, lost his primary to a tea party unknown in a June shocker. The same could happen to Roberts. But Senate primaries are different from House primaries. It鈥檚 harder to sneak up on a senator, or at least one who has had plenty of fair warning, as Roberts has. And Wolf is a flawed challenger. More on that in a moment.

One of Wolf鈥檚 most memorable biographical points is that he鈥檚 a blood relative of President Obama鈥檚. Really. Wolf鈥檚 mother was a cousin of Obama鈥檚 American grandmother, which makes Obama and Wolf second cousins once removed. For people interested in genealogy, The Washington Post has drawn .

But there鈥檚 more to the story. The Post links to , Anna McCurry Wolf, conducted as part of an oral history project focused on Obama鈥檚 Kansas roots.

鈥淧erhaps the most charming part of the interview with Anna McCurry is her obvious excitement about being related to the president,鈥 writes Philip Bump in the Post.

鈥淪he'd heard that the family was related to a black man from Chicago, and then saw his 2004 convention speech. When she heard him refer to a white grandmother from Kansas at some point, she told her second husband, Gene Colle, 鈥榯hat kid has to have the same DNA I have. That has to be Stanley Ann's son.鈥 It was. She traveled to D.C. with a group from Kansas and met Obama, who gave her an autographed copy of his book.鈥

There鈥檚 no word on what Obama thinks of his tea party cousin鈥檚 effort to come to Washington and make the president鈥檚 life more difficult. But, as we already said, chances are Wolf won鈥檛 get here.

And here鈥檚 why: Back in February, about gruesome X-rays of deceased patients that the radiologist had posted on Facebook - including inappropriate comments.

That revelation dealt a major blow to Wolf鈥檚 campaign, which failed to attract an endorsement from the wealthy Club for Growth. The fact that he鈥檚 still getting media attention is a testament to Roberts鈥檚 vulnerability.

One outside group that is supporting Wolf and has invested in ads on his behalf is the Senate Conservatives Fund. released July 31 shows Wolf鈥檚 deficit down to 9 points.

But we鈥檒l believe that Wolf can actually win when we see it.

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