photo by: Associated Press

With family members behind her, Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan, delivers her concession speech Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008 at a Democratic Party watch party in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

TOPEKA — A former Kansas Democratic congresswoman has dropped out of the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Pat Roberts.

Former U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda formed a campaign committee in June to run for the Democratic nomination next year. Former federal prosecutor and Kansas City area attorney Barry Grissom is also seeking the nomination.

Boyda represented a northeast Kansas district in the U.S. House in 2007 and 2008, ousting a Republican incumbent in 2006, only to narrowly lose the seat two years later. She said Thursday she was leaving the Senate race to focus on bringing Kansans together at a time of civic strife without what she described as the “constraints of a partisan campaign.”

Republicans haven’t lost a U.S. Senate race in Kansas since 1932.