Table of Contents

• 1. Who Is Adam Hamilton?
• 2. From Pulpit to Politics: The Decision to Run
• 3. Winning the Democratic Primary
• 4. Where Hamilton Stands on the Issues
• 5. The General Election: Hamilton vs. Marshall
• 6. Why This Race Matters: Kansas's Senate History
• 7. Polling and Race Ratings
• 8. Faith, Fundraising, and the "Too Woke" Attacks
• 9. Hamilton vs. Marshall: Side-by-Side
• 10. How to Get Involved
• 11. Donate to Adam Hamilton
• 12. Kansas Voter Resources
• 13. Frequently Asked Questions

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1. Who Is Adam Hamilton?

Adam Hamilton was born July 12, 1964, and grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas. He married his high school sweetheart, LaVon, the week after graduation, and the two have been married for more than 40 years. He earned a bachelor's degree in pastoral ministry from Oral Roberts University in 1985 and a Master of Divinity from Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology.

In 1990, at age 25, Hamilton and his wife started a church in the Kansas City area with four people meeting in a borrowed space. That church, the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, grew over 36 years into the largest United Methodist congregation in the country, with more than 20,000 members across nine locations. Hamilton has written more than 30 books on faith and theology and preached at the 2013 National Prayer Service. He also served on President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Hamilton describes his church's community work as central to why he decided to run for office: the congregation became the largest source of donated food in Kansas City after the regional food bank, the area's largest sponsor of blood drives, funded a mobile dental clinic treating thousands of children each year, and invested millions of dollars in the region's lowest-income elementary schools.

• Official campaign website: HamiltonForKansas.com
• Wikipedia biography: Adam Hamilton (pastor)
• Issues page: Full Platform at HamiltonForKansas.com

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2. From Pulpit to Politics: The Decision to Run

Hamilton first floated the idea of a Senate run in early 2025, initially considering an independent campaign rather than running under a party label. He spent a Lenten season in prayer and study before deciding how to proceed, and traveled the state on an 18-city listening tour, hearing from farmers, ranchers, teachers, small-business owners, and grandparents about the challenges they were facing.

He ultimately entered the race in April 2026 as a Democrat, framing the decision around his decades of experience leading a congregation split roughly evenly between Republicans, Democrats, and independents. "In a world that feels more and more divided, I've had the privilege of being a pastor for 36 years of a church that's roughly equally divided between Republicans, Democrats and independents," Hamilton said at the time. "Our people love each other precisely because of their differences."

Hamilton has said he was compelled to run after watching the effects of tariff policy, foreign wars, and federal health care cuts on the Kansans he spoke with during his listening tour, and that he hopes to bring what he calls "decency" back to Washington.

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3. Winning the Democratic Primary

Hamilton entered a crowded Democratic primary field of 11 candidates, including former federal prosecutor Jason Hart, physician Kevin Latz, and commercial real estate developer Erik Murray, among others. On August 4, 2026, the Associated Press called the race for Hamilton within minutes of polls closing. He won with just shy of 35 percent of the vote, receiving roughly 76,700 votes.

Hamilton's fundraising set him apart well before the primary. His campaign reported raising nearly $3.7 million within 62 days of entering the race, a record-setting haul that gave him a significant advantage over his primary opponents and outraised incumbent Senator Roger Marshall's $610,000 in the same period, though Marshall retained a larger cash-on-hand advantage overall.

Hamilton carried his strongest margins in eastern Kansas, particularly the Kansas City suburbs, while performing more weakly in rural, western, and central parts of the state.

• 2026 U.S. Senate Election in Kansas (Wikipedia)

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4. Where Hamilton Stands on the Issues

Hamilton's campaign is built around four stated priorities: listening to Kansans, solving what his campaign calls an "affordability and opportunity crisis," building bipartisan bridges, and restoring decency in government. He describes himself as a moderate, independent-minded Democrat rather than a national-party ideologue.

Affordability, Tariffs, and Energy

Hamilton has made the cost of living the centerpiece of his campaign, arguing that tariff policy and foreign wars have driven up the price of food, medicine, fuel, and housing materials. His platform calls for ending what he describes as self-destructive tariffs, requiring congressional approval for any future tariffs rather than allowing them to be imposed unilaterally, and pursuing an "all of the above" energy strategy intended to bring down electricity and gas prices while protecting Kansas farmers and manufacturers from tariff-driven cost increases.

Health Care

Hamilton has proposed restoring Affordable Care Act tax credits to lower health insurance premiums, opposing Medicaid cuts he says threaten rural hospitals, and allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices while extending those negotiated savings into the private insurance market. He has cited reporting that more than 30,000 Kansans dropped off health insurance exchanges since January 2026 as a driving concern behind his campaign.

Bipartisanship and Government Reform

Hamilton frames Congress's role as a constitutional check on executive power and argues that Washington's dysfunction stems from an unwillingness to work across party lines. He has repeatedly criticized what he calls the "crassness and mean-spiritedness" of national politics and has said he wants the Senate to return to a more deliberative, cooperative model.

Abortion

Hamilton has described his position on abortion as complicated by his religious background. He has said he voted in 2022 against a Kansas constitutional amendment that would have enabled tougher abortion restrictions, and has said lawmakers should not act as the primary ethicists or spiritual guides for women, while in other contexts describing himself as "pro-life with a heavy heart."

Gun Policy

Hamilton supports stronger gun-safety measures such as expanded background checks and stricter regulation, framed around training and sensible limits rather than broad bans.

• Read Adam Hamilton's Full Platform at HamiltonForKansas.com

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5. The General Election: Hamilton vs. Marshall

Hamilton's Republican opponent is incumbent Senator Roger Marshall, a physician (M.D., University of Kansas) and former Army Reserve captain first elected to the Senate in 2020 after previously serving two terms in the U.S. House. Marshall has closely aligned himself with the Trump administration, telling Fox Business in March 2026, "Thank God for President Trump's policies."

Marshall's campaign has attacked Hamilton as too liberal for Kansas, with his chief of staff saying that based on Hamilton's public statements he would be "the most liberal nominee in Kansas history" if he won the primary, and a campaign spokesperson later calling Hamilton "too woke for Kansas" after the primary results came in. Hamilton has pushed back directly on that framing, responding at one campaign stop, "When did caring about your neighbor, being concerned for children, being concerned for the poor and vulnerable become woke?"

Both campaigns have been running attack ads in the weeks following the primary, with one Hamilton-aligned ad stating "Marshall votes for tariffs and war" and a Marshall-aligned ad calling Hamilton "way too woke for Kansas."

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6. Why This Race Matters: Kansas's Senate History

Kansas is a longtime Republican stronghold. The state last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1932, when Franklin Roosevelt's landslide election carried George McGill into office during the depths of the Great Depression. Kansas Democrats have had more success in gubernatorial races over the years — they currently hold both the governorship and lieutenant governorship — but the Senate has remained out of reach for nearly a century.

Republicans currently hold a substantial voter registration advantage statewide. Political scientists who study Kansas politics note that Marshall is less broadly popular than some other Kansas Republicans, and that affordability and health care are unusually prominent concerns this cycle, factors that could make 2026 a more competitive year than the state's registration numbers alone would suggest.

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7. Polling and Race Ratings

Public polling since the August primary has shown a close race. A survey conducted for Hamilton's campaign by GBAO found him trailing Marshall by 4 percentage points, while a separate poll from Public Policy Polling, fielded for Senate Majority PAC, found the race a statistical tie at 46 percent for Marshall to 45 percent for Hamilton. The Pollsmax aggregate as of late August 2026 shows Marshall leading 49.7% to 43.9%, a wider gap than the individual polls above — a reminder that different pollsters and aggregators can show meaningfully different pictures of the same race.

National race-raters have shifted their assessment of the contest since Hamilton's primary win. Both the Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball moved the race from "Solid" or "Safe" Republican to "Likely Republican," a modest shift that nonetheless signals increased national attention to a race Republicans previously considered a lock.

• Cook Political Report: Kansas Senate Race Analysis

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8. Faith, Fundraising, and the "Too Woke" Attacks

Hamilton's candidacy has drawn national religious-press attention as a test of whether a prominent pastor can translate ministerial credibility into electoral success in a conservative state. Coverage from Religion News Service and Christianity Today has noted the inherent tension in Hamilton's approach: while he has built a reputation as a bridge-builder within his religiously and politically mixed congregation, critics point out that voters tend to align with candidates whose policy positions match their own regardless of the candidate's professed faith.

Hamilton has said he plans to remain senior pastor of his church during the campaign but will not be preaching for its duration. If elected, he has said he intends to continue serving the church part time before retiring from that role by 2030.

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9. Hamilton vs. Marshall: Side-by-Side

Note: This comparison reflects reported positions and events as of late August 2026. Check each campaign's official site for the most current platform language before voting.

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10. How to Get Involved

• Volunteer at HamiltonForKansas.com

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11. Donate to Adam Hamilton's Campaign

Supporters can contribute directly to Adam Hamilton's campaign for U.S. Senate through the official ActBlue donation page linked below. The link opens in a new browser tab.

Donate to Adam Hamilton

Direct donation link: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/hamilton-web-donate

Before donating, review the contribution rules, eligibility requirements, limits, and campaign finance disclosures shown on the ActBlue donation page. Note: as with most active campaigns, other ActBlue pages referencing Adam Hamilton may be run by independent PACs or allied groups rather than his campaign committee directly — those pages are legally required to disclose that they are "not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee." When in doubt, use the link above or go directly through hamiltonforkansas.com.

• Adam Hamilton for Kansas, Official Campaign Website

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12. Kansas Voter and Civic Resources

• Kansas election information: Kansas Secretary of State, Elections
• Check your voter registration: Kansas Voter View
• Federal voter information: USA.gov Voting Resources
• Election reminders: Vote.org
• Voter registration and reminders: TurboVote
• Campaign finance information: Federal Election Commission Campaign Finance Data

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13. Frequently Asked Questions

The answers below were researched from multiple independent news sources (KWCH, Kansas Reflector, KCUR, Wikipedia), race-rating outlets (Cook Political Report, Sabato's Crystal Ball), and the official campaign site, cross-checked against one another. Facts current as of late August 2026 — verify anything time-sensitive against the official sources linked throughout this guide before relying on it.

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