The last time a Kansas Democrat was in the Senate, the Wizard of Oz was in cinemas

Kansas woke up on Wednesday to sunny skies and historic new leadership after days of rain, hail and tornado warnings - amid a tempestuous election battle that ultimately swept a new brand of blue politics into the deep-red state.

Democrat and church pastor Adam Hamilton claimed victory Tuesday night over Republican incumbent and staunch Trump supporter Sen. Roger Marshall, marking the first time a Democrat won the seat since 1932.

The 62-year-old leader of the US's largest United Methodist congregation - with 24,000 congregants - had promised voters civility, moderate policy stances and and open ear to their concerns. He'd invoked the state's most famous cultural touchstone on the campaign trail, telling Kansans: "What we need in Washington right now is we need senators with a brain who use it, with a heart who feel with it, and who have courage and speak up because of it."

When the race was called in Hamilton's favour, voters all over Kansas - from lifelong Republicans in tiny unincorporated communities to dyed-in-the-wool liberals who'd felt disenfranchised for decades - erupted in cheers and sighs of relief.

In Wichita, a manufacturing city in the heart of the state, around 100 attendees celebrated as TV pundits onscreen spoke of a "blue tsunami" - cheering as Democrats swept not just Kansas seats but also races across the nation.

"I have lived in Kansas for 30-something years, and I have felt all of those years like I voted and my vote was never counted," said Laura Elliott, 71, sitting at a high-top table with three others.

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"We did it!" shouted Chuck Schmidt, 76, hugging a younger voter as he credited upcoming generations with the party's success.

"People are fed up with the chaos and the corruption," Schmidt, a former state representative, told BBC. "People in Kansas, for some reason, have gotten conditioned to just vote for the R - and they haven't realised there was another alternative."

Faith has long been a deciding factor for many Kansas voters. A 2025 report from the Pew Research Center ranked the state as the 10th most religious in the US, with 70% of Kansans identifying as Christian and nearly 30% as evangelical Protestants - a group that has overwhelmingly backed Trump and the Republican Party in recent years.

In Great Bend, Marshall's hometown, Navy veteran Richard Elmore listed abortion, transgender issues, illegal immigration and "the gay rights issue" as some of the reasons he backed the Republican candidate.

"Anybody that'd say they were a Christian and not honour those things are lying to themselves and others," said the 77-year-old grandfather, who believes an angel is protecting Trump, otherwise "he'd be dead".

As the founding pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, Hamilton told voters his faith is what inspires his belief that the government should help care for the poor and vulnerable.

But some took issue with his positions; Richard Friedeman, a lawyer and Republican Party chair of Kansas' Barton County, accused the pastor of being "very, very liberal - and he has the ability that liberal pastors have of telling you one thing and turning right around and telling somebody else the opposite".

Friedeman was cautiously optimistic on Election Day as he discussed the race from his Great Bend home, saying he believed Marshall, a personal friend and "good Republican voter," had "done a good job" during his time in office.

But he conceded that the Republican party was embattled.

"I think there's going to be a reckoning for the way Trump has alienated so many people ... I think it's going to be hard for awhile," he said.

His prediction proved true, as voters in Republican strongholds like Iowa, South Carolina and Texas turned out for Democratic candidates.

Even in Mississippi, the heart of America's bible belt, the race was neck and neck at the time of publication - a feat once thought nearly impossible for the Democratic Party.

Most pundits and pollsters are viewing these historic victories as rebukes of Trump's second-term agenda, such as aggressive immigration policies, a war in Iran and global tariffs that have contributed to the rising cost of living.

The day before the election, on a rainy afternoon filled with squalls and hail, dozens of Hamilton supporters turned out for a last-minute canvas in the university town of Lawrence, Kansas. Among them were retired teacher Sharron Witters, 77, and her husband Lynn, 78, a former forestry professor and pastor of 25 years.

As evangelical Christians, they said Hamilton's candidacy motivated them to put out signs on their lawn and knock on doors for the first time. They set out with maps and lists, as Sharron navigated their silver VW SUV from address to address in a well-heeled Lawrence neighborhood.

Hamilton, Sharron said, "doesn't sound like a politician".

"What a delight to stand and listen to somebody whose sentences make sense," she said.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful if he actually motivated people to work across the aisle?

She noted how other evangelical Christians had backed Trump "because he said, 'I'm against abortion'".

But she and her husband, "felt, from the very beginning, that [Trump] was a wolf in sheep's clothing".

Hamilton's campaign galvanised a powerful cross-section of Kansas society - from Republicans voting blue for the first time to long-time liberals initially skeptical of his more moderate positions.

In Great Bend, a town of 14,000 bordered by farmland and myriad anti-abortion billboards along country roads, lifelong Republican Dan Bonine, 85, cast his first vote for a Democrat.

The retired banker had been one of Marshall's earliest supporters when the physician began his political career - but was swayed by Hamilton's presence and positions.

"Ronald Reagan was really a great leader to bring us together, and I think Adam Hamilton possesses much of that same kind of leadership skill," Bonine told the BBC, adding that "in my lifetime we've only had three or four" politicians of such calibre.

"He's just an awesome, awesome leader, and his values are rock solid."

In Kansas, voters say they were inspired not just by their frustration with Trump and his policies but also, like Bonine, by Hamilton's charisma and positions - particularly in contrast with Marshall's performance over the last six years. Critics argued that the Republican Senator prioritised Trump loyalty over Kansas' needs, with much attention paid to Marshall's residence in Florida - where many voters felt he spent more of his time and attention than in his home state.

Registered Republican Bryan Drescher, 40, grew up in Great Bend – and Marshall coached him in baseball. He voted for the senator six years ago but noted that Marshall had a reputation for being "brash" and "quick to judge" – citing, for example, a 2025 town hall that the Senator abruptly ended when challenged.

"I want someone … who's going to bring us back to the middle and back to the table," Drescher said. Hamilton, he felt, fit that description.

The air was thick with celebration and relief as Wichita attendees left the party before midnight on Tuesday, heading home to digest Hamilton's win and what it meant for Kansas' future.

Just a few miles away were expansive facilities for Boeing, Bombardier and other aviation giants; it's not unusual to see enormous plane parts in parking lots or passing on trucks or freight trains in this part of the state.

Retired teacher Judith Ney, 74, sat at the party with her fellow education retiree, Sheryl Loveland. The pair were initially nervous wrecks, they said, hoping desperately that Hamilton and other Democrats would prevail.

Now they were "so stinking happy," Loveland said.

"I've been waiting for decades for this kind of a night," said Chuck Schmidt, the former Democratic state rep, beaming widely under his University of Kansas baseball cap. "And we're finally getting, I think, what we've been trying to get to."