Adam Hamilton wins Kansas Senate seat, first Democrat elected from the state in 94 years
he Methodist pastor beat Republican Senator Roger Marshall in a race that was expected to be safe for Republicans. Kansas last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 1932
OVERLAND PARK, Kansas, Nov 4 – Adam Hamilton has won the Senate race in Kansas, beating Republican Senator Roger Marshall and becoming the first Democrat the state has sent to the Senate in 94 years.
It is a striking victory in a state that President Donald Trump carried by more than 16 points in 2024. When the race began, most observers expected the seat to remain safely in Republican hands.
Kansas last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1932, making Hamilton’s win a historic breakthrough for his party in the state.
The result also gives Democrats a major boost in their fight for control of the Senate. Republicans entered Tuesday’s elections with 53 seats, while Democrats held 47. Democrats need to gain four more seats to take control of the chamber in January.
Hamilton, 62, is the pastor of the largest United Methodist congregation in the country. He has written more than 30 books on Christianity and faith and has built a reputation as a prominent religious leader. He ran on the rising cost of living and on the need to work across party lines. He described himself as an “independent-minded Democrat” and pushed back against Republican claims that he was too far to the left.
The race tightened in its final weeks, leading Trump and Vice President Vance to travel to Kansas to campaign for Marshall and rally Republican voters.
At a rally near Wichita on October 19, Trump said the Department of Agriculture would start a “harvest fuel relief program.” He said it would give farmers $8 billion to help them pay for diesel during the harvest.
Farmers were a big focus for both men. Prices for diesel and fertilizer have risen sharply, in part because of the war with Iran, and that has hit farms across Kansas hard.
Marshall was a doctor who delivered babies before he went into politics. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2016 and to the Senate in 2020.
He came under fire in September after a New York Times report said he had sued more than 700 of his former patients over unpaid medical bills. In an interview with Fox News that month, Marshall called the report a “hit job.” He said he had followed normal collection practices.
His aides had urged him not to respond, the Times later reported. But he went ahead and aired an ad defending himself. Hamilton’s win was one of several big gains for Democrats on Tuesday night.
In Texas, Democrat James Talarico beat Ken Paxton, the Associated Press projected, becoming the first Democrat to win a statewide race there since 1994. In Ohio, former Senator Sherrod Brown won back a seat by defeating Republican Senator Jon Husted.
In North Carolina, Democrat Roy Cooper won a seat previously held by a Republican. In South Carolina, NBC News and CBS News projected that Democrat Annie Andrews had defeated Republican Senator Darline Graham.
Democrats also held on to Senate seats in Georgia and New Hampshire.
Results were still coming in from other key races, including those in Alaska, Iowa, Maine and Michigan.
Many voters went to the polls unhappy with the economy. Polls have shown that the cost of living has become the top issue for voters across the country, and most say they disapprove of Trump’s handling of it.
Exit polls found that half of voters nationwide saw the election as a chance to rebuke the president.
In the final New York Times and Siena College poll of Kansas, Hamilton led Marshall by 49 percent to 44 percent among likely voters. Kansas voters had not sent a Democrat to the Senate since the Great Depression.
Hamilton will be sworn in to the Senate in January.
