The GOP is on a rescue mission in Kansas, where Dems haven't won a
Senate race in nearly a century
[October 23, 2026]
By JOHN HANNA and JOEY CAPPELLETTI
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — At 94 years, the Kansas GOP’s streak of one-party
dominance in Senate races is the nation’s longest because even in the
toughest years, disaffected Republican-leaning voters have reliably
drifted back to the party’s fold before Election Day.
But Republicans fear this year could be different, setting the race
between Republican Sen. Roger Marshall and Democrat Adam Hamilton on
track to be the most expensive in state history.
Hamilton, founder and senior pastor of the nation’s largest United
Methodist church, has raised significantly more money than Marshall, who
is seeking his second term. Hamilton’s candidacy — and voters’
disapproval of President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy — have
upended GOP hopes of seeing Marshall coast to victory as the GOP tries
to hold its Senate majority.
Kansas, which Trump carried in three presidential races, is an unlikely
Senate battleground. Republicans redirected money from the North
Carolina Senate race to help Marshall, and Trump flew to Kansas this
week to hold a rally for him, calling Marshall “one of the greatest
senators in our country." Vice President JD Vance plans to have a rally
next week in Topeka after previously headlining one in the Kansas City
suburbs in September.
Stalwart GOP voters sensed a serious threat even before Trump announced
his rally.
In Topeka, 81-year-old Julie Adamson has been praying about the
election, but she's also knocked on doors for Marshall, about 200 by her
count. She said if Hamilton wins and Democrats control the Senate,
“We’ll see, ‘impeach, impeach Trump.’”
“And nothing will get done for our country,” she added.
A formidable candidate emerged in a tough year for the GOP
Before entering the race, Hamilton already had a public profile in
vote-rich suburbs through building his Kansas City-area Church of the
Resurrection into a 25,000 member congregation. Churchgoing Protestants
also knew him as the author of several dozen books, and he’s honed his
speaking skills through weekly sermons.
Hamilton has positioned himself as a moderate and made rising prices,
particularly for fuel, a key issue. During a debate Wednesday, both he
and Marshall endorsed barring transgender girls and women from female
sports teams. Hamilton called for local officials to make such decisions
but suggested Marshall and other Republicans have been bullying
transgender people by making the issue prominent in campaigns.
Marshall, a mostly retired doctor, portrays Hamilton as too liberal —
radical, even — for a state where less than 26% of the 2 million
registered voters are Democrats, while more than 44% are Republicans.
During Wednesday's debate, Marshall repeatedly said a Hamilton victory
would put Democrats in charge of the Senate and that Hamilton would vote
with liberal Democrats.
“We need to remind everybody that control the Senate goes through
Kansas,” he said.
There are signs that voter enthusiasm is with the Democrats as advance
voting has surged across the U.S. compared to the last midterm. In
Kansas, it has more than doubled for the same period.
Amanda Chavez Thomson, who is part owner of a small home-restoration
business, said she believes change has been needed “for quite some
time.”
“I think we finally have a candidate that can give us that energy and
that surge that we need from people who may be on the fence or may not
have voted in the past,” she said.
Fundraising emerges as a key concern for Republicans
Since the state's August primary, Republican groups have committed to
spending more than $26 million on television and digital advertising to
boost Marshall, more than what they spent in his first race in 2020,
according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. Including Marshall's
campaign, total GOP ad spending would exceed $32 million.
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Republican Sen. Roger Marshall participates in a debate with
Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate Adam Hamilton at WDAF TV in
Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Charlie
Riedel, Pool)
But Hamilton and Democratic groups together have committed to spending
more than $38 million, according to AdImpact. Total ad spending —
involving more than 40 groups outside the campaigns — would be about $71
million, a record for Kansas.
One of the reasons the GOP is pushing money toward Marshall may be that
the incumbent has proven a lackluster fundraiser. Between the state's
August primary and Thursday, Hamilton has collected more than 10,000
contributions from Kansas residents, while raising $8 million from
across the U.S., online campaign finance reports show. Marshall has
about 200 contributions from Kansans while raising $905,000 total.
“People are crying out, saying, ‘Come on, Roger Marshall, speak up for
us,’” Hamilton said during Wednesday night's debate.
Marshall talking about liberal Democrats and ‘wokeness’
Marshall’s campaign and GOP groups have tried to knock any shine off
Hamilton’s public image by attacking how he’s led his church and using
snippets of his own sermons to portray him as too “woke.” During Trump’s
rally, Marshall called Hamilton “the most radical liberal Democrat to
ever get through a Senate primary in the history of Kansas.”
But such attacks aren't resonating with at least a few disaffected
Republicans. Don Hineman, a western Kansas rancher and former GOP state
House majority leader, said he's tired of “woke” being as an insult.
Hineman, who has signed on to the Republicans for Hamilton group, added
that no one “was more ‘woke’ than Jesus Christ.”
Democrats have countered with television ads over Marshall's pursuit of
unpaid patient bills from the practice as an obstetrician that he gave
up a decade ago. State court records online show that from 1996 through
2016, Marshall or his practice filed at least 700 debt-collection
lawsuits, occasionally 10 or more a day.
The New York Times first reported the extent of the litigation. It said
that in 81 cases, patients were arrested for missing court dates and
quoted two experts who called Marshall's tactics extreme. During
Wednesday's debate, Marshall said he's faced a “gross
mischaracterization” of his actions.
History and loyalty have been key assets for the Kansas GOP
Democrats can hold out hope for a Hamilton victory because the state has
sizable blocs of moderate Republican and independent voters who've
regularly swung elections to their candidates for governor and who
protected abortion rights in a statewide vote in 2022.
Yet Republicans still have two key assets: Kansas’ political history and
the loyalty that even unhappy Republican-leaning voters show to the
party.
Not only have Democrats lost every Senate race in Kansas since 1932, no
Democrat has come within 10 points of winning since 1974. In both 2014
and 2020, races considered tossups in mid-October fizzled, and
Marshall’s predecessor, Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, won.
Leroy Towns, a former Roberts chief of staff, said many Republicans in
2014 who considered voting against Roberts “just couldn’t do it.” Towns
— who switched parties because of Trump — is backing Hamilton.
Towns believes Hamilton will win, but added, “That Republican pull at
the end of an election is really, really strong in this state.”
___
Cappelletti reported from Washington. Nicholas Ingram in Topeka, Kansas
contributed reporting.
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