Adam Hamilton becomes first Democrat in 94 years to win Senate election in Kansas
Megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton stunned Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) in Tuesday’s election — becoming the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the Sunflower State since 1932.
Hamilton garnered 52.1% of the vote, compared to Marshall’s 45%, with 94% of the ballots tallied as of 11 pm EST.
Marshall’s defeat in his bid for a second term represented a worst-case scenario for Republicans, who were swamped by a blue wave that saw them lose control of the House of Representatives and now likely the Senate.
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Marshall himself was keen to avoid complacency among his supporters, declaring at a debate last month that “control of the Senate goes through Kansas” and appealing to backers of President Trump to turn out.
“If you want [it] to continue, you need to come out,” he said, “because we delivered.”
Soaring diesel prices in the agriculture-dependent state and a series of controversies involving Marshall brought Hamilton to within striking distance of the incumbent in polling during the weeks leading up to Election Day.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rated the race a “toss-up” last month, and Trump made two stops in Kansas to stump for Marshall as part of his tour of midterm battlegrounds.
Marshall, an obstetrician-gynecologist, came under fire after the New York Times reported in September that he had sued some 700 of his patients over unpaid bills.
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The senator argued that litigation decisions were “out of our hands” after unpaid bills were turned over to collections agencies and said he was using the “same practice” as other doctors and hospitals.
Hamilton’s campaign, however, seized on the report — putting out a powerful attack ad featuring one of Marshall’s patients, Meischa Zimmerman, who claimed she was sued by the senator and arrested while eight months pregnant after she missed a medical debt payment with an 18% interest rate.
“Roger Marshall preyed on the low-income families of Kansas,” Zimmerman said in the ad.
The senator also received negative press over his own unpaid bakery bill from six years ago after the business owner posted on Facebook that they were never made whole after his 2020 campaign ordered $678 worth of goods.
Meanwhile, Hamilton came under fire for his handling of a child sexual abuse scandal at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.
Hamilton, a founding pastor of the church, acknowledged during his debate with Marshall that he made a “mistake” by failing to bar a volunteer accused of sexual abuse in 2005 from a church retreat the following year, where he allegedly abused another boy.
“I was actually preaching that weekend at Church of the Resurrection, and I did not sign off on him going back. I should have checked to make sure that he wasn’t going back,” Hamilton said. “That was a mistake on my part.”
The subject matter of some of Hamilton’s sermons also caused a stir, with Marshall charging they were “woke” and counter to Kansans’ values.
In one sermon — “What would Jesus say about climate change?” — Hamilton called on his congregation to repent over their carbon footprints and eating beef, which he said contributed to greenhouse gas emission.
While Marshall attempted to spotlight Hamilton’s lefty positions throughout the campaign, the Democrat billed himself as an “independent-minded” moderate, insisting during the debate that “I’m not somebody who favors the Socialist Party.”