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Saying GOP control of the Senate is more important than any single candidate, a national tea party group threw its support Monday behind Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas the man the Tea Party Express had tried to unseat in this summers Republican primary.

The about-face underscored concerns within various factions of the conservative movement that the GOPs efforts to win control of the Senate could hinge on Mr. Roberts re-election, and reopened simmering questions about whether the tea party insurgency has helped or hurt Republicans electoral chances over the last four years.

After turning back a challenge from Milton Wolf, a tea party-backed candidate with no electoral experience, Mr. Roberts is now trying to rebuild trust within the GOP even as he fends off an independent candidate, Greg Orman.

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I think at the end of the day that tough primary battle against a pretty much nondescript tea party candidate exposed his weakness, and so far there is no real indication that he is bringing all of those people back, said Burdett A. Loomis, political science professor at Kansas University. If they go back, they are going to go back in the most begrudging way.

In order to try to push unity on Kansas Republicans, national establishment and tea party figures have parachuted into the state to do what they can to rescue Mr. Roberts campaign.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the partys 2008 presidential candidate, have stumped with Mr. Roberts, as have tea party favorites Sarah Palin and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, another hero of grass-roots conservatives, plans to campaign with Mr. Roberts later this month.

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GOP analysts, though, say the key to the race could be winning the support of Mr. Wolf, who has backed Gov. Sam Brownbacks re-election bid, but has not endorsed Mr. Roberts.

The difficulty he has is Dr. Wolf has still not endorsed him even though a good number of Wolf supporters see the wisdom of endorsing Roberts because power of the Senate could be at stake, said Matt Hickam, a Kansas-based GOP consultant.

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Pat Roberts gets tea party backing in Kansas