Adam Hamilton, a pastor, is hoping his moderate message and local recognition could end a nearly century-long U.S. Senate drought for Democrats in Kansas.
He is looking to defeat the Republican incumbent, Senator Roger Marshall, a former obstetrician-gynecologist who was elected in 2020. The race is close, according to polls, despite the fact that Kansas has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.
The seat has become an unexpected battleground on a midterm map that has put many Republican strongholds in play amid rising frustrations with President Trump.
Here are five things to know about Mr. Hamilton.
1. He is the leader of a large Methodist church.
Mr. Hamilton is the founder and pastor of Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist congregation in the country, with around 24,000 members in three states. Mr. Hamilton stepped away from the pulpit in June to campaign but has said he plans to keep working as a senior pastor if he is elected. Mr. Marshall has used Mr. Hamilton’s role in the church as an attack line, deriding him as a “megachurch C.E.O.”
2. He is a former Republican who thought about running as an independent.
Mr. Hamilton is an unusual Democrat, and his candidacy has made for a surprising — and viable — campaign in a ruby-red state. He was registered as a Republican until earlier this year and had considered running as an independent. He has found supporters among moderate Democrats and some Republicans, including two of the state’s former Republican governors. He has criticized the Iran war and pointed to Mr. Marshall and Mr. Trump as reasons that costs are on the rise in Kansas. His campaign has emphasized making health care more accessible, particularly in rural areas, partly by restoring tax credits and reversing Medicare cuts made by the Trump administration.
3. He has a large following — and a real opportunity.
The competitiveness of the race has been a shock to many. The Cook Political Report updated its assessment of the race this month to a tossup from leaning Republican. Republicans running across the Midwest are grappling with increasing energy prices and the unpopular war in Iran.
Mr. Hamilton is well known in the state and has struck a moderate tone that has appealed to disillusioned supporters of Mr. Trump. Mr. Marshall, meanwhile, is close to Mr. Trump, who campaigned on the first-term senator’s behalf this week. Mr. Trump has grown unpopular in Kansas, where a majority of voters recently said they disapproved of the president, according to a Times/Siena poll.
4. He’s out-raised his opponent.
In the first nine months of the year, Mr. Hamilton raised $13.4 million, about six times as much as Mr. Marshall raised, Federal Election Commission filings show. Mr. Hamilton reported almost $10 million in the third quarter alone, compared with roughly $800,000 for Mr. Marshall. Republicans have funneled cash into the Kansas race: As of Sunday, the G.O.P.’s main super PAC had spent or reserved more than $11.6 million to support Mr. Marshall, whose fund-raising has lagged.
5. He’s part of a group of Protestant clergy members or seminarians seeking national office as Democrats.
At least a dozen pastors, seminarians or clergy members have run for federal office as Democrats this year, according to Religion News Service. Among them is James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and Texas’ Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, who, like Mr. Hamilton, has stepped away from religious commitments to campaign. Sarah Trone Garriott, a Lutheran minister who is running for Congress in Iowa, has continued preaching several times a month. Mr. Hamilton, for his part, has described voting as “an act of Christian discipleship.”
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