Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor and first-time political candidate, is projected to oust Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) by a razor-thin margin in Kansas, CNN and NBC reported, handing Democrats a crucial win as they fight to seize control of the Senate from Republicans.
It was a hard-fought victory for Hamilton, whom polls showed in a dead heat with Marshall all the way up until Election Day. And it was the result of an astronomically expensive campaign that saw both candidates smash state election spending records. The result is something Democrats are sure to celebrate: the party’s first senator from Kansas since before World War II.
Hamilton, a reverend with no previous political experience, campaigned on a centrist platform, arguing that Kansas — located at the geographical center of the United States — should have representatives in Congress who are similarly straight down the middle.
“[H]ere in Kansas, we’re proud of being in the middle politically,” he said in his first general election ad aired in August. “That puts us about a million miles away from the extreme politics of Washington that are tearing us apart and driving up prices.”
Like most candidates on the ballot this cycle, Hamilton’s pitch to voters centered around the rising cost of living. He pushed back on Marshall’s staunch support of Trump administration policies, such as the war in Iran and its punishing tariff regime that he’s said raised prices.
The Hamilton campaign also hammered Marshall over reports that, while working as an obstetrician-gynecologist, he charged patients 18% interest rates on medical debt and sued some of his former patients over debts as low as $101. Marshall has called those reports a “hit job” and claimed that his interest charges were standard practice.
But rather than deny the accusations and move on, Marshall made the bizarre decision to drag the issue back into the spotlight just days before the midterm elections. In a 60-second ad, which The New York Times reported was filmed with an independent crew and without the knowledge of his advisers, the Kansas senator said he’d chased debtors because his medical practice needed to “keep the lights on.”
“[W]e occasionally handed some accounts over to a collection agency, just like nearly every private medical practice does,” Marshall said in the ad.
The Republican senator, for his part, accused Hamilton of being too liberal, and in the weeks before Election Day, GOP-aligned groups have run ads calling Hamilton a “woke megachurch pastor” and run context-free clips of his past sermons. And during a community event last week, Marshall went so far as to call Hamilton a “groomer,” though he seemed unsure of what the term meant.
“He pushes drag shows for kids … is that grooming? Yeah, he probably is grooming,” Marshall told the crowd — some of whom audibly replied ‘no’ to his inquiry.
The 2026 election cycle has smashed spending records across the country, and Kansas’ Senate race was no different. A week before Election Day, ad spending in the contest surpassed $84 million, nearly doubling the $49 million spent during Marshall’s first campaign in 2020. But Hamilton’s spending dwarfed Marshall’s: the Democrat spent roughly $16 million on ad buys to the incumbent Republican’s $6 million.
And despite Marshall’s advantage as a sitting senator, Hamilton remained close in the polls, leading the Republican by single digits in some forecasts.
Hamilton’s victory makes him the first Democrat to represent Kansas in the Senate since 1939. And it’s a major step toward Democrats wresting control of the upper chamber from Republicans. A Democratic Senate will all but ensure the Trump administration is hamstrung for the next two years with oversight and investigations into the president and his allies.