Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is widely seen as Republicans’ best shot at hanging on to the safely GOP seat. | Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images 2020 elections Pompeo leaves the door open to Kansas Senate run

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday appeared to re-open the door to a Kansas Senate run, telling a Kansas City radio station that he will “always leave open the possibility that something will change.”

Pompeo declared earlier this year that he’d “ruled out” a bid to replace retiring Sen. Pat Roberts, but that was before divisive former Kansas secretary of state Kris Kobach launched his own bid last week. On Wednesday, it appeared Pompeo had stepped back from his original assessment.


“I do see this from time to time. There is a lot more people talking about this and spending time on it than Susan and I are spending time thinking about it,” he told KCMO Radio on Wednesday, though he added that he is “very focused” on his current post and that he “intend[s] to do this so long as President Trump wants me to be engaged in this activity.”

Pompeo is widely seen as Republicans’ best shot at hanging on to the safely GOP seat after Kobach, a polarizing arch-conservative and Trump ally, lost a winnable statewide race for governor last fall.

The secretary rejected an opportunity to weigh in on Kobach’s candidacy, citing his role as part of the Trump administration, but said, more or less: Never say never.

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“Yeah, I would have never dreamed that I’d be the secretary of State even a year before I became the director of the CIA, a year before that,” he told KCMO host Pete Mundo. “And so I always leave open the possibility that something will change and my path in life will change too, but my mission set ... is really very clear.”

Confidants of the secretary told POLITICO last month that Pompeo is wrestling with whether to stay in White House as a figure of stability in a tumultuous administration or run for Senate.

And McConnell has made clear that he wants Pompeo in the race, telling POLITICO that former Kansas congressman is his "first choice" for the seat.

"I've said several times, I'm not sure the president agrees with this, that I'd love to see the secretary of State run for the Senate in Kansas. But the filing deadline's not till next June," McConnell said last week about Kobach's entry into the race.