Democrat Adam Hamilton pulls off upset over GOP Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas

Rev. Adam Hamilton has defeated Republican Sen. Roger Marshall Kansas, NBC News projects, becoming the first Democrat to win a Senate seat in the ruby red state since 1932.

The upset victory in a state President Donald Trump carried by 16 points in the 2024 election gives Democrats a major boost in the fight for the Senate majority.

Hamilton, a minister at the largest Methodist congregation in the country, has never held public office and was registered as a Republican until earlier this year. Despite Kansas’ conservative history, it became a key battleground in the final stretch of the race. Amid growing backlash to Trump’s handling of the economy, Republican outside groups were forced to divert millions of dollars to boost Marshall. Democratic groups responded with their own ads, as well. Running as a moderate, Hamilton, 62, garnered bipartisan support, including from former GOP Govs. Bill Graves and Mike Hayden. He had served on former President Barack Obama’s faith advisory council and preached at his 2013 inaugural prayer service.

Hamilton and his allies hit Marshall, 66, on the high prices that resulted from the Iran war and Trump’s tariff agenda, as well as on the health care cuts in the “big, beautiful bill” Republicans enacted last year. Rising diesel fuel and beef prices hit Kansas’ agricultural economy particularly hard.

Democrats noted that Marshall repeatedly voted against resolutions intended to halt the conflict until Congress authorized it. They also pointed to comments in April when, responding to rising gas prices, Marshall said national security was “even more important than your pocketbook.”

Still, Marshall did not distance himself from Trump to the degree that Republicans in tough races did ahead of the election, though in September he demanded that federal immigration agents work with local law enforcement.

Marshall, an obstetrician-gynecologist, also came under fire in September after The New York Times reported that he sued hundreds of patients over unpaid bills, resulting in dozens of arrest warrants for missing court dates. Marshall’s lawyer said that while the senator had set the interest rate of 18% on the bills, he had no involvement in warrants or arrests. Marshall dismissed the story as a “hit job.”

Prior to winning his first term in the Senate by 11 points in 2020, Marshall served two terms in the House.

While Kansas hasn’t had a Democratic senator in nearly 90 years, a Democrat, Laura Kelly, served the last two terms as governor of the state.