No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate race in Kansas since 1932. Adam Hamilton wants to change that.
Since 1990, Hamilton has led the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood (now rebranded simply as Resurrection), which he started in a funeral home chapel and grew into the largest United Methodist congregation in the country.
Now he’s the Democratic nominee against Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, in a race forecasters once called safe for the GOP that is now increasingly drawing national attention. Libertarian David Graham is also on the ballot.
Post Editor Kyle Palmer spoke with Hamilton about why he decided to challenge Marshall as a Democrat, after previously contemplating a run as an independent, and why he thinks he can win a state that has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in nearly a century.
*The Post has extended invitations for interviews to both Marshall and Graham as well, and will publish those when they happen.
Watch the full interview
Read the highlights
The transcript below has been edited for clarity, length and grammar.
Post: Kansas hasn’t elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in nearly a century. Even six years ago, there was another Johnson Countian on the ballot who lost to Roger Marshall by a double-digit percentage-point margin. What do you see in this state right now that you think gives you a shot to change that history?
Hamilton: First of all, Roger Marshall has a pretty crummy record to be running on. I just want to be blunt about that. He’s trying not to run on it, but you know we have a lower number of people in Kansas who have health care today. We’re paying $6 a gallon for diesel fuel and over $4 a gallon for regular fuel, and these are results of decisions made in Washington, D.C. that he supported related to the war [with Iran]. We have $150 a month tariff tax that’s hidden, but we’re all paying this tax, and people are recognizing that they are living paycheck to paycheck, struggling harder now under what’s happening in Washington, D.C. These are all things that he supports and has been a vocal spokesperson for the policies of the Trump administration. On the other hand, I’m a candidate who listens, and that’s not something he’s done a lot of. Many people remember in Oakley, Kansas, he stepped out of a listening session, a town hall, 550 days ago, and I don’t think he’s had another open town hall meeting like that since.
Post: There was a version of that argument six years ago. You know that Republicans, maybe moderate Republicans, independents like yourself, would turn away from Trump and maybe join Democrats. At that time, it was Barbara Bollier, but it didn’t work out. Roger Marshall would claim that he actually knows what Kansans want more than you do, or what Democrats think they want.
Hamilton: So I’ve traveled across the state now six times, and I’ve been to the west, north, south, east. As I’m listening to people, here’s what I hear: 30% of the people who show up at my events are Republicans. And recently, I had the leadership of the Republican Party in one particular area, who said we’re all supporting you and voting for you. It’s not going to be even a close election. The pollsters don’t realize this. They’re frustrated. They’re frustrated with Roger Marshall. They’re frustrated with what’s happening in Washington that’s negatively impacting them. Again, you know, you think about the recent announcement from the president about Bombardier: that’s 1,500 jobs in Kansas and Wichita, and yet the threat to Canada that we may not sell their airplanes is insulting them. You know, talking about how they’re not good airplanes. I mean, this is the kind of thing that when people hear it, they know it hurts people in Kansas.
Post: What would you do if elected to lower costs for families in places like Olathe and Overland Park? You’ve mentioned several economic headwinds so far in this interview. What would you do, potentially in the minority in the Senate or in a very divided Senate?
Hamilton: Well, the first thing would be to focus on ending the war in Iran. The war in Iran is costing Americans $100 a month in gas. Actually, a little more than that now. We’ve set record prices for diesel in the last few weeks. I think Republicans and Democrats, many of them, agree on this. A large number of Republicans are saying this war was to be done in a month, and here we are seven months later. So the war is one piece of that. The tariffs, and we’ve got to have a policy when it comes to tariffs, where tariffs are brought before Congress, and Congress has a chance to evaluate what the real cost of these tariffs for Americans is and why we are doing it? It shouldn’t be at the whim of a president in the middle of the night when they’re offended or upset about something, and they impose a tariff or make demeaning or belittling statements to or about our trade partners. So those are two things that we can do. We should do immediately. Then when it comes to health care, we’ve got to look at who the people are who are struggling most to be able to afford health care. There are 51,000 Kansans who had health care a year and a half ago, and they don’t have it anymore. 51,000. That’s a direct result of a vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill to leave out subsidies and to eliminate a trillion dollars’ worth of Medicaid for the next 10 years. That left people in Kansas, including people in Olathe, Johnson County, left people who once had health care to not have health insurance anymore.
Post: You’re from Johnson County. That may very well be an asset for voters here, for many of our readers at the Johnson County Post. But in much of Kansas, “Johnson County” might be grist for a campaign attack. How do you feel being a suburban pastor trying to win over voters in places like Dodge City and Colby?
Hamilton: I did grow up in Johnson County. This is my home. I will be the first senator, I believe, to have gone to Shawnee Mission schools. I went through the eighth grade in Shawnee Mission schools [then] graduated from Blue Valley schools. My siblings went to Olathe and De Soto schools. This is home for me. I understand and care about this community way more than Roger Marshall could understand or care about this community, but I also care about the rest of Kansas. And when I travel across Kansas, I say, “Look, I’m sorry. I had nothing to do with where my parents decided to raise me.” This is where I’m from, but I love and care for all Kansans. I care deeply about this state. I love this state, and I’m going to fight for all Kansas, not just Johnson County, but for everyone.
Post: You’re most well known around here for being leader of Resurrection Church in Leawood. You’ve led that church for 36 years. You’ve described your congregation as a mixture of Republicans, Democrats, Independents. The AP recently reported that you do still plan to stay on leading Resurrection if elected, and maybe continue to preach occasionally. I’ll also note your opponent and the Kansas GOP have also accused you of using church funds to launch your campaign. How will you keep your role as pastor separate from your role as senator? What will that look like if elected?
Hamilton: Before I jumped in the race, I talked to [Georgia senator] Raphael Warnock, who is the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the historic King family church in Atlanta, and he’s also a U.S. senator. And I said, “What does this look like?” I want to be able to mentor our [church] leaders. I want to be able to encourage and help them, but I was already moving towards retirement over the next four years. So, my full-time job, the one that’s going to get my full-time attention, is the U.S. Senate. However I can help, if the church feels like I can help, I want to be there and do that. There’ll be times I will be able to preach. There’ll be times that I will be preaching, but I’m also clear: My job is to be the U.S. senator. We have an amazing team of people there [at Resurrection]. We’re already in the process of moving towards finding my successor, and that will continue.
Post: How does the silo work between your work, whatever it may be, in whatever form, as pastor and leader of the church and a politician and a campaigner?
Hamilton: When I come to preach at Church of the Resurrection, I’m preaching scripture, and I’m focused on helping people understand how that applies to their daily life. When I go to Washington, D.C., I’m focused on fighting for the Constitution, and my aim is not to be the chaplain of the Senate. They have one already. It’s to fight for the rights of all people, whether they’re atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims or Christians. I’m going to fight for all of them and stand up for their rights in the Constitution. And we have another picture of this here in Kansas City because Emanuel Cleaver was senior pastor at St. James United Methodist Church, while serving as mayor of Kansas City, and then as a Congressperson. So, you know, it’s not an impossible task to do this. One last thing, you mentioned — the use of church funds. That claim was when I was thinking about running, and I wanted to share with the congregation before they heard from the news media that I was thinking about this. I recorded a video to share with the congregation, and that’s what the GOP claimed, or Roger Marshall claimed, was using church funds. I was trying to communicate to our congregation. And most people, even people in the GOP, said that was a ridiculous claim and did not have any merit.
Post: Marshall has called you “too woke for Kansas,” pointing in part to the United Methodist Church denomination’s vote in 2024 to allow for LGBTQ clergy. Respond to that line of attack. Is that a fair line of attack?
Hamilton: No, I shared in the debate last Saturday [at the State Fair] that I’m pretty sure if Jesus was here on the debate stage with Roger Marshall and I, Roger Marshall would consider Jesus “too woke.” I’m not sure exactly when it became true that if you were caring, compassionate and concerned for people, especially vulnerable people, that you were somehow bad for doing that. The scriptures are really clear that we speak up for those who can’t speak up for themselves. That we stand up for people who are bullied or harassed or picked on. And unfortunately, Roger Marshall doesn’t seem to understand or capture that.
Post: Another major issue that’s been dominating Kansas politics for decades is abortion. I imagine you’ve encountered people who see you as a Christian pastor who has supported reproductive rights, and they might have trouble squaring those two. I wonder what your response is to those voters?
Hamilton: As a pastor, I’ve been with people who were in crisis pregnancies, people who were in difficult situations, spouses that were abusive, severe fetal deformities. I don’t believe that the Kansas Legislature should be making that decision for women in our state. Neither should the United States Senate or House. There’s legal and safe access to abortion. At the same time, there’s a moral tension when it comes to abortion, and I feel that in part because my own mother, when she was 17 at Shawnee Mission East High School, and my dad, when he was 16, became pregnant. She ended up dropping out of high school. My grandfather was going to take her to Switzerland to have an abortion, and he was a TWA pilot, and she said, “I can’t do it. I’m going to have this baby.” I was with her a few months ago at her assisted living center, and she said, “Don’t forget my story.” And I said, “Mom, how could I forget your story?” And she said, “I just keep thinking to myself, how would the world be different if I’d got on that airplane and you had never been born?” And she started crying, and I started crying, and that’s the moral tension I feel. So I hold both of those two things together: deep compassion and concern for women, and saying the U.S. Senate or the House and our state legislature should not be making these decisions for women.
Post: You, as Resurrection pastor, have founded the Campaign for Kindness — not a political campaign but a campaign promoting civility and decency. You’ve also made that a centerpiece of your [Senate] campaign. I will say, some voters might have seen the viral clips of the State Fair debate with Roger Marshall, during which some of your supporters repeatedly shouted down Marshall. I wonder if that’s the tone that you want to have with this with this campaign, or if that rubbed you the wrong way?
Hamilton: So you know, you’ve got a big group at the [State Fair] debate. They aren’t all Resurrection people. There’s a few. Some of them were there, but a lot of other folks from the state, and I debated [inside my head]: “Do I stop them and tell them no?” But this is part of the State Fair ethos, as I understand it. People shout, and I was getting booed and shouted at, too, and it just happened to be there were a lot more people booing and shouting against Roger Marshall. I really don’t want people to boo people. I don’t boo people at Arrowhead [Stadium during Chiefs games], but I did appreciate the fact that people wanted to communicate their anger and their frustration with the sitting senator. I think, aside from that, I don’t think he had a very good debate because we have a better place to run on than he does, and I think I’m going to be a better senator for the state of Kansas than Roger Marshall has been.
