Kansas Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton, Democrat, arrives at a campaign event November 2, 2026 in Wichita, Kansas. Hamilton defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) in a competitive race in the November 3 midterm elections. (Photo by Jim Vondruska/Getty Images)
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Kansans are sending Democrat Adam Hamilton to the U.S. Senate, the first time they have sent a Democrat to the chamber since 1932.
Hamilton, pastor of the nation’s largest United Methodist church, preached a moderate approach and emphasized listening to both sides.
President Trump has won Kansas by a double-digit margin in every presidential election since 2016. But Kansans also elected a moderate Democrat as governor and then re-elected her during the same period, demonstrating that the state is not a Republican stronghold across the board.
Previous Kansas Senate races have been more sleepy. Marshall headed to Washington with a margin of victory of more than 11 percentage points in 2020, despite some predictions of a more competitive race.
But this year’s contest proved the most expensive in Kansas history, with Hamilton breaking several fundraising records.
Hamilton flirted with the idea of running as an independent, but decided to run as an “independent-minded Democrat.” His supporters feared that if he ran as an independent, he would split votes with the Democratic candidate and ultimately send Marshall back to Washington.
Andi Welch of Johnson County, Kansas, doesn’t always vote Democratic on the ballot, but she voted for Hamilton on Election Day.
“I think it’s going to be fair,” Welch said. “I think he’s running as a Democrat for the reasons he’s stating, and I think he’s really going to look out for the citizens of Kansas.”
Hamilton’s call for term limits, criticism from national Democrats, and support from prominent Kansas Republicans resonated with Kansans.
But the race also gave rise to personal attacks.
The New York Times reported that Marshall, who worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2016, sued 700 of his former patients for medical debts. Hamilton’s campaign used one of these former patients in an attack ad, and five days before Election Day, that patient sued Marshall for allegedly charging a predatory interest rate.
Marshall’s campaign, for its part, relied heavily on offensive advertising around claims that Hamilton protected a pedophile. A church camp volunteer allegedly attempted to sexually abuse boys at one of Hamilton’s church camps and returned the following year where he did it again.
Court records show the Church’s initial investigation into the boys’ report was inconclusive, and Hamilton later said in debate that he was not involved in the decision to allow the volunteer to return. Church leaders called authorities after the second report, but Hamilton said they should have called police after the first.
National Republicans also turned their attention to the state, betting that the remaining undecided voters — who made up about 8% of the electorate in September, according to an Emerson College poll — were Trump voters who just needed encouragement to get out and vote. The president and vice president each visited the state twice during the election season.
Yet the polls were leaning in Hamilton’s favor – Emerson’s by a larger margin than before their visit.
Hamilton notably avoided associating with national Democrats, consistent with his “independent-minded” Democratic stance. Although his campaign received $5 million from a political action committee associated with U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Hamilton said he would not support Schumer for another leadership position.
In their final debate before Election Day, Marshall sought to tie Hamilton to Schumer 15 times.
Hamilton, meanwhile, leaned toward a Kansas-first approach, a message that appealed to voters.
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