NOT KANSAS ANYMORE

America’s Reddest State Flips in Stunning Rebuke of Trump

The last time a Democrat won a Senate seat here was in 1932.

Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton has beaten incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall in the Kansas Senate race.

Hamilton’s victory was unthinkable just months ago, as a Democrat had not won a Senate race in Kansas in nearly a century, since 1932, the same year Franklin D. Roosevelt was first elected president.

But in the final stretch of the campaign season, polls showed the race closing and Hamilton taking the lead, prompting a massive scramble by Republicans to redirect money and resources to the once-considered safe seat to try to save it.

Donald Trump and JD Vance both traveled to the state to help Marshall, after the president won Kansas just two years ago by more than 16 points, but even that wasn’t enough, as the president’s favorability has hit a record low.

Democrats suddenly saw Kansas as a midterm battleground late in the game as polling showed Hamilton, the senior pastor of the largest United Methodist congregation in the U.S., picking up steam in the final stretch.

While Kansas had not elected a Democrat to the Senate in nearly a century, it does have a Democratic governor, proving that Kansas voters are willing to elect a Democrat statewide.

One of the more damaging lines of attack against Marshall came from a New York Times report in early September, which found that, as a doctor, the GOP senator sued 700 patients for outstanding bills over decades of work as a gynecologist. The report led to 81 patients being arrested. He also routinely charged 18 percent interest.

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Hamilton seized on the report, and the fallout was fierce even as Trump rushed to defend the Republican senator. Marshall was also accused of not spending much time in the state and instead going to Florida when not in Washington.

Both parties started spending millions on advertising as national figures rushed to add Kansas to their schedules. Trump returned to the state for one of his final two in-person rallies on Sunday.

Roughly $100 million was spent on advertising in the Kansas Senate race, according to Ad Impact tracking, with Democrats spending more than $58 million while Republicans spent more than $41 million.

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Sarah Ewall-WicePolitical Reporter

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