Former state Rep. Kent Roth of Ellinwood has withdrawn from the GOP primary race in the 1st Congressional District of western and central Kansas.

Roth, an Ellinwood attorney, said Friday he plans to support Alan LaPolice, a Clyde farmer and educator, in the GOP primary against incumbent Rep. Tim Huelskamp.

The Hutchinson News reports Roth says his goal is to help defeat Huelskamp and he did not want to risk splitting the opposition vote and allowing Huelskamp to advance to the general election with less than 50 percent of the vote.

Ross served six years in the Kansas Legislature during the 1970s and 1980s.

Huelskamp, of Fowler, is seeking a third two-year term against LaPolice and Democratic candidates Jim Sherow, a Kansas State University history professor and former Manhattan mayor, and Bryan Whitney, a 2013 graduate of Wichita State University from Syracuse.