How Kansas Could Blow Up MAGA

"Are you happy with what's happening in Washington? If you are, then vote for Roger Marshall, and if not, then vote for me." Those words came not from a Democrat in California, but from a pastor in ruby-red Kansas — a state Trump has won three times and that hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932. Yet the Cook Political Report has just moved the Kansas Senate race from "lean Republican" into "toss-up" territory, and the implications reach far beyond one state.

The Candidate and the Moment

The Democrats have nominated someone who, as co-host Katty Kay puts it, looks like they "went into a lab and tried to manufacture the ideal Democratic candidate for a conservative leaning state." Pastor Adam Hamilton founded the country's largest United Methodist Church, was a registered Republican for most of his life, only became a Democrat this spring, and calls himself both conservative and liberal. He's running against incumbent Senator Roger Marshall, an OB-GYN who has struggled on the campaign trail — getting booed off stage at a town hall early in 2025, heckled at the Kansas State Fair debate, and facing a crowd that chanted "shame on you" when he tried to defend his record.