Navy veteran turned Democratic lawmaker now wants Roger Marshall’s Senate seat
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Schmidt is running for first-term Republican Roger Marshall’s U.S. Senate seat.
- Schmidt raised roughly $177,000 in the first three months of 2026.
- Schmidt was one of two Democrats to support a GOP amendment capping valuation increases.
After tours of duty aboard the USS Ronald Reagan and with special forces in Bahrain, Patrick Schmidt returned to D.C. in time to witness an event that would drastically alter his outlook on American democracy.
The sixth-generation Kansan was living in a D.C. apartment across from the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob forced entry and interrupted the formal certification of the presidential election.
“To see the Capitol desecrated like that and to see people carrying weapons, waving swastikas and Confederate flags — I thought that the best opportunity that I would have to make a difference and continue my service was to try to help give people an opportunity to make sure their voice was heard,” Schmidt said.
He transferred to the Naval Reserves and ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for Kansas’ 2nd Congressional District in 2022. Two years later, he won a state Senate seat to represent a district that stretches from Topeka to Lawrence.
Now, the 34-year-old is again seeking higher office — specifically, first-term Republican Roger Marshall’s U.S. Senate seat.
Schmidt attributed his decision to run in a crowded Democratic primary to a sense of paternal responsibility. He and his wife welcomed their firstborn last November — “on Election Day,” he noted.
“I don’t want him to grow up in a country that’s on the path that we are,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt’s pitch to voters
Former Democratic Gov. John Carlin is backing Schmidt’s primary bid. He called the state senator the most proven candidate in a field that includes the Rev. Adam Hamilton, retired corporate executive Sandy Spidel Neumann, real estate developer Erik Murray, former Biden USDA official Christy Davis, Army veteran Noah Taylor, attorney Anne Parelkar, former federal prosecutor Jason Hart and Michael Soetaert of Wellington.
“He’s a fighter and very, very bright, committed to this, and an incredibly hard worker,” Carlin said of Schmidt in an interview. “He’s the best door-to-door person I’ve ever dealt with, and I’ve dealt with them for several decades.”
The roughly $177,000 that Schmidt raised during the first three months of the year was the most of any Democratic candidate, placing him in the best financial position before Hamilton reportedly raised more than $1 million in the week after his campaign announcement.
Schmidt, who grew up in Overland Park and earned a bachelor’s degree in international relations at Tufts University, said his experience as a naval intelligence officer would inform his approach to leadership in D.C.
“Some of the threats that we’re seeing right now — not just the conflict we’ve got in the Middle East. But, you know, we’re welcoming new conflicts and new threats every day because of the irresponsibility we’re seeing from this White House and from this Congress,” Schmidt said.
“It’s what we’re seeing in Kansas right now — the impact we’re getting from the war, from the tariffs, from the unpredictability and lack of accountability,” he added. “That’s a word that I really have heard a lot on the campaign trail and knocking doors.”
Challenging conventional wisdom
In Topeka, Schmidt has cultivated a reputation for his eagerness to wade into debates and to freelance when he disagrees with his own party’s legislative strategy.
In February, he was one of two Democratic senators to support a GOP-led constitutional amendment proposal aimed at capping year-over-year property valuation increases at 3%.
Last year, he drew the ire of reproductive rights groups when he added an amendment to a Republican bill designed to cement child support payments for mothers based on pregnancy costs before birth. Schmidt amended the bill to expand eligibility for a child tax credit to include expecting parents.
Schmidt, a self-described ardent supporter of abortion rights, voted against the legislation in its final form. He justified his amendment as an attempt to either kill the child support bill or broaden a tax break for families struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living.
“I did not write that bill. I did not vote for that bill. I did not support that bill,” Schmidt said. “I tried to kill that bill. I was not successful in killing it, but I did get the child tax credit doubled the year a woman gives birth.”
Schmidt’s own parents were educators who taught a combined 91 years in Shawnee Mission schools.
“Two teachers’ salaries was enough to raise two kids and own their own home,” Schmidt said.
For many young people, that version of the American Dream is no longer realistic, he said, adding that solutions at the federal level will require bold, systemic change.
“We have a very regressive tax structure,” Schmidt said. “We make healthcare astronomically expensive and hard to find, and we have a corrupt system that enables all of this. And Roger Marshall is part of that corrupt system.”
