Rev.Adam Hamilton has defeated Republican Sen.
Roger Marshall Kansas, NBC News projects, becoming the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the ruby red state since 1932.The upset victory in a state President Donald Trump carried by 16 points in the 2024 election gives Democrats a major boost in the fight for the Senate majority.
Hamilton, a minister at the largest Methodist congregation in the country, has never held public office and was registered as a Republican until earlier this year.Despite Kansas’ conservative history, it became a key battleground in the final stretch of the race.
Amid growing backlash to Trump’s handling of the economy, Republican outside groups were forced to divert millions of dollars to boost Marshall.Democratic groups responded with their own ads, as well.
Running as a moderate, Hamilton, 62, garnered bipartisan support, including from former GOP Govs.Bill Graves and Mike Hayden.
He had served on former President Barack Obama’s faith advisory council and preached at his 2013 inaugural prayer service.Hamilton and his allies hit Marshall, 66, on the high prices that resulted from the Iran war and Trump’s tariff agenda, as well as on the health care cuts in the “big, beautiful bill” Republicans enacted last year.
Rising diesel fuel and beef prices hit Kansas’ agricultural economy particularly hard.Sen.
Roger Marshall campaigns in October.Nick Oxford / Bloomberg via GettyDemocrats noted that Marshall repeatedly voted against resolutions intended to halt the conflict until Congress authorized it.They also pointed to comments in April when, responding to rising gas prices, Marshall said national security was “even more important than your pocketbook.”Still, Marshall did not distance himself from Trump to the degree that Republicans in tough races did ahead of the election, though in September he demanded that federal immigration agents work with local law enforcement.
Marshall, an obstetrician-gynecologist, also ca...