Democrat Adam Hamilton won the U.S. Senate race in Kansas on Tuesday, defeating Republican Sen. Roger Marshall to become the state’s first Democrat elected to the chamber in 94 years, according to Reuters. The win helped Democrats take control of the Senate.
The result was a striking pickup in a state President Donald Trump carried by more than 16 percentage points in 2024. The race was initially expected to be safely Republican.
Republicans held a 53-47 majority going into Tuesday’s elections. Democrats needed a net gain of four seats to take control.
Hamilton, 62, the pastor of the country’s largest United Methodist congregation, campaigned on affordability and bipartisanship. He called himself an “independent-minded Democrat” and rejected Republican efforts to portray him as far left.
Hamilton used his victory speech to call for unity between Democrats and Republicans. He also called for curbing cost-of-living increases he blamed on Trump administration policies, including tariffs and cuts to food assistance.
“The people in Kansas, Republicans, Democrats and independents, were saying, what’s happening in Washington is not okay,” Hamilton said.
The race tightened in its final weeks, drawing Trump and Vice President JD Vance to Kansas to campaign for Marshall, who had Trump’s endorsement.
At a rally near Wichita on Oct. 19, Trump said the U.S. Department of Agriculture would launch a “harvest fuel relief program” providing $8 billion to farmers to offset diesel costs during the harvest season.
Both candidates sought to appeal to Kansas farmers hit by high diesel and fertilizer prices, which have been driven up in part by the war in Iran.
Hamilton has written more than 30 books on Christianity and theology.
Marshall, an obstetrician before entering politics, was elected to the U.S. House in 2016 and to the Senate in 2020. He faced criticism after a New York Times report in September said he had sued more than 700 patients over unpaid bills. In a September interview with Fox News, Marshall called the article a “hit job” and said he had followed typical collections practices.
