Adam Hamilton launches Kansas Senate bid for Democratic nomination
adam hamilton launched a campaign Thursday for the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas, entering the race as a 61-year-old Methodist mega-church pastor with a national following among mainline Protestants. He told his congregation that he could bridge partisan divides in a highly polarized political climate.
The winner of the Aug. 4 Democratic primary will face incumbent Republican Roger Marshall, who aligned himself closely with President Donald Trump in his first Senate run in 2020. Hamilton had considered an independent run, a path many Democrats believed would split the anti-Marshall vote and help Marshall win another term.
Hamilton and the Kansas primary
Hamilton’s entry adds a potentially formidable candidate to a race in Kansas, a normally Republican state where Republicans have not lost a U.S. Senate race since 1932. At least a few of the eight other, lesser-known Democrats who already launched campaigns are likely to stay in the primary.
He described himself as a fifth-generation Kansan and said, “Every week, it seemed there was another news story in the last year where I would find myself shaking my head and thinking, we have to do better,” during his campaign-related remarks.
Church of the Resurrection
Hamilton built the Church of the Resurrection over the past 35 years in the Kansas City area, and the church now has about 22,000 members. That gives him a built-in base that is larger than a typical local church and broader than a single parish constituency.
For Democrats, Hamilton’s decision settles one of the race’s most delicate questions: whether he would run inside the party or outside it. His choice keeps him in the primary, where voters will decide whether a pastor with statewide and national name recognition or one of the lower-profile Democrats challenges Marshall in November.
The immediate test is the Aug. 4 primary, where Hamilton must now compete against the other Democrats already in the field. The race now turns on whether his profile can carry him through a crowded contest in a state Republicans have controlled for decades.
