Well-known KC pastor Hamilton enters Senate race. What’s it all mean? | Opinion
Well, the Kansas race for U.S. Senate just got a lot more interesting.
The Rev. Adam Hamilton, pastor of the largest church in Kansas, has now officially announced he’ll challenge incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall.
And Hamilton’s decided to run as a Democrat — instantly emerging as the most prominent name on the ballot for the August Democratic primary.
A centrist by nature, Hamilton originally set out to explore an independent campaign. But he ended up confronting the reality of the two-party system during a listening tour around the state.
“I went to 18 towns across Kansas in listening sessions, and in every one of them, the first question out of the chute was, ‘Why don’t you run as a Democrat? We’re worried that if you run as an independent, you won’t win, and you know, you’re going to give Roger Marshall the victory,’” Hamilton said.
Hamilton is the senior pastor at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, which he started in 1990 and nurtured from a small startup to a megachurch.
With 24,000 active members and about 22,000 in weekly attendance at nine locations on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri border, Resurrection is the largest church in the Kansas City area and the largest United Methodist Church in the country.
That’s a pretty good base to run off of.
Republicans love love love to paint their opponents as hostile to Christianity.
Good luck making that charge stick against Hamilton, who’s been more successful at spreading the Gospel of Jesus than anybody else in this state.
Republicans act worried
Kansas Democrats haven’t won a Senate election since 1932, but the Republicans are looking a bit scared right now.
The “tell” is when they turn away from their issues and start arguing rules of the game.
Last week, the Kansas Republican Party filed a Federal Election Commission complaint claiming Hamilton violated campaign finance laws by posting a February YouTube video announcing to his parishioners that he would be exploring a run for Senate.
Of course, everyone who lives here knows of the longtime symbiotic relationship between Kansas Republican candidates and the many conservative churches that support them. Voter guides, anyone? Available at the church door.
But even if that didn’t exist, Hamilton obviously would need to tell his congregants if he’s considering a career change.
In normal times, a complaint like this wouldn’t go anywhere. But these days, we live under a government that just charged a former FBI director with illegally arranging seashells, so anything’s possible.
The best part is this is the absolute first time I’ve ever heard the Kansas Republican Party argue for the separation of church and state (as regular readers know, I’m a big fan of irony). I’m surprised they can keep a straight face while doing it, but when one of your most prominent politicians is in trouble, needs must when the devil drives, I guess.
Marshall more vulnerable than in past races
“R” is the default setting for most Kansas voters and Marshall coasted to two easy senatorial election wins in the past 10 years.
But this time around, he’s got some vulnerabilities he needs to address.
First, Marshall’s basically joined at the hip with Donald Trump. A year and a half ago, the president’s favor was a golden ticket to electoral success.
Today? Not so much.
Wednesday’s Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Trump’s approval rating has plummeted to 34%, his lowest ever. His numbers cratered primarily due to the unpopular war on Iran and the rising prices it’s spawned, especially at the gas pump.
Expect Hamilton to pound the quality of life drum hard and repeatedly between now and the election.
“I think Kansas are saying, ‘Look, our life is not better under Roger Marshall,’” Hamilton said. “(Trump’s) tariffs have hurt Kansans. Our farmers have said this. Our ranchers have said this. We recognize today Kansans are paying 40% more for gasoline than they were last year and that harms people.
“We figured out how to send a team of astronauts to the dark side of the moon, but we haven’t figured out how to work together to address health care. You know, if you make $80,000 a year, you’re spending 40% of your income on health insurance if you don’t get it through your employer. That’s untenable.”
Marshall’s other big problem is that after years of cultivating a “man of the people” vibe, he’s now seen by a lot of voters as aloof, distant and disconnected.
That flame was lit last year, when news reports revealed that Marshall owns a $1.2 million home on the Florida coast, while his official Kansas residence is a small cabin in Stafford County.
It grew to wildfire proportions at a disastrous town hall meeting in March in the tiny town of Oakley, where Marshall wrapped up and walked out early rather than answer questions that weren’t filtered through his staff.
Since then, Marshall’s personal appearances have been carefully managed affairs with handpicked friendly audiences, often not announced publicly until after the fact.
Senate control at stake
The Democratic race to challenge Marshall is crowded — nine candidates, including Hamilton.
There are potentially good senators in the list, but none have the name recognition or overall buzz Hamilton brings to the race.
All of this might be more or less academic if the balance of power in Washington wasn’t at stake. But it is.
The consensus map at the polling site 270 to Win currently shows 50 seats that are at least leaning Republican, against 46 seats where Democrats are favored, with four tossups.
If that prediction holds, even a 50-50 split would keep Republicans in power because Vice President JD Vance would hold the tiebreaking vote.
But 270 to Win lists Marshall’s seat as “safe Republican.”
It may still be. But on this Thursday morning, it’s not as safe as it was yesterday.
This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 9:11 AM with the headline "Well-known KC pastor Hamilton enters Senate race. What’s it all mean? | Opinion."
