TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democrats’ hopes for upsetting three-term Republican Sen. Pat Roberts rest on challenger Chad Taylor’s belief that he can escape President Barack Obama’s shadow, even in GOP-leaning Kansas.

The 40-year-old Taylor is the Shawnee County district attorney, and his low-budget campaign is trying to tap into frustration with Washington and anti-incumbent sentiments. The 78-year-old Roberts began his political career as a congressional aide in the late 1960s.

Roberts and other Kansas Republicans have prospered by making the Democratic president their political foil, and Roberts is doing it now. Taylor said he won’t be anybody’s lapdog and believes he can lure enough votes from GOP moderates and unaffiliated voters to win.

But Taylor’s bid to unseat Roberts is complicated by the entry of independent candidate and 44-year-old Olathe businessman Greg Orman.