Government & Politics
A member of Republican Roger Marshall’s campaign team tests positive for COVID-19
A member of Kansas Republican Rep. Roger Marshall’s Senate campaign team has tested positive for COVID-19, the campaign confirmed Tuesday.
The staffer participated in the Kansas Republican Party’s bus tour events in the Kansas City area earlier this month.
However, in a statement the campaign said the aide was exposed to the virus at a personal event unrelated to the campaign and has not had contact with Marshall since that event.
“Last week, a member of our team tested positive for COVID-19. They had already been self-quarantining for mild symptoms after exposure at a personal event and have since remained in isolation,” said Brent Robertson, Marshall’s chief of staff, in a statement.
“We worked with local officials on contact tracing, and no members of the Marshall team had to quarantine or test. Dr. Marshall has not had any contact with the team member since before the personal event, and before symptoms. Out of an abundance of caution, Dr. Marshall regularly tests, and continues to be negative.”
The statement did not name the staffer or offer details about the personal event. The campaign confirmed the aide’s positive test after The Star learned about it from a source.
The positive test for one of Marshall’s staffers comes in the final stretch of a heated campaign for Kansas’ open U.S. Senate seat in which the COVID-19 pandemic has been a dominant issue.
Marshall faces Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier in the race.
Both candidates are doctors, but they’ve offered strikingly different messages on the pandemic.
Marshall, an OB-GYN and congressman who represents western Kansas, spoke about the threat of the virus on the House floor in January when the outbreak was still mostly centered in China.
But in recent months he’s made multiple public statements downplaying the threat of exposure in rural Kansas, areas which have become increasingly hard hit by the virus in recent weeks.
He has also been repeatedly photographed at campaign events without a mask.
“Out here in Barton County, the incidence is really low,” Marshall told The Star in August. “I think there’s a time and place for a mask. I encourage everyone to wear them when they’re in public places… But I think when you’re outside in a private setting we let our guard down a little bit.”
Bollier has centered her campaign on the pandemic and during last week’s debate in Wichita criticized Marshall for not consistently wearing a mask at campaign events.
“Unlike my opponent who has run around the state without one on, we need safety and protection,” she said.
Marshall responded that Kansans “know what’s best for ourselves” and repeated an unsubstantiated claim that “shutting down the economy has killed more people than the virus ever will.”
Bollier’s campaign said Tuesday she had received a negative test ahead of the debate with Marshall.
“Following this news, she will be getting another one as soon as possible, given her contact with Congressman Marshall,” said Bollier’s spokeswoman Alexandra De Luca.
De Luca called on Marshall’s campaign to release additional information about the staffer who tested positive.
“Marshall’s campaign has a responsibility to the people of Kansas to not be vague here and disclose the staffer for purposes of contract tracing. We wish them a speedy recovery,” she said.
He has previously disclosed he was taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that President Donald Trump earlier this year touted as a COVID-19 treatment.
Trump and several members of his team tested positive for the virus earlier this month. The president has since recovered and returned to the campaign trail, but the White House is grappling with an additional outbreak this week after multiple members of Vice President Mike Pence’s staff tested positive.
Marshall told voters at a campaign stop in Tonganoxie on October 7 that “we’re winning this war, we’re turning the corner” in the fight against the virus.
“I can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Marshall said.
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