The pastor of the nation’s largest Methodist church launched his campaign for the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas on Thursday, injecting a high-profile religious leader into a race Democrats have long struggled to contest in the state.
The Rev. Adam Hamilton, 61, entered the Democratic primary ahead of an Aug. 4 contest that will determine the challenger to incumbent Republican Roger Marshall. Marshall, who won in 2020, aligned closely with President Donald Trump in that first Senate run, and the contest now looks tighter for Republicans than it did a year earlier, according to the report.
Hamilton’s entry could reshape the Democratic field. Several other Democrats had already launched campaigns, and the report said it appears at least some of those candidates would remain in the primary even as Hamilton competes for the nomination.
Before deciding to return to the Democratic Party, Hamilton had considered running as an independent, telling his congregation that he could bridge partisan divides. The report said Hamilton told members, “Every week, it seemed there was another news story in the last year where I would find myself shaking my head and thinking, we have to do better,” a statement presented as part of his case for staying above party lines.
Those arguments, however, met skepticism from Democrats and Republicans after Hamilton’s campaign said he registered as a Democrat again Thursday. The Kansas Republican Party quickly signaled that it intends to portray Hamilton as liberal and out of step with Kansas, with the party’s executive director, Rob Fillion, arguing in a statement that Hamilton’s earlier “independent” exploration was “little more than a political marketing strategy to mask a radical left agenda.”
Democratic rivals also questioned Hamilton’s party record. A spokesman for state Sen. Patrick Schmidt said Hamilton registered as a Republican for the August 2020 primary and argued the pastor was not a Democrat “when it counted most.” Another Democratic contender, Noah Taylor, who is a veteran from Wichita and served in Afghanistan, said Hamilton’s return was “not a conversion,” calling it “a calculation.”
Hamilton’s campaign drew on his political and religious standing beyond Kansas. The report said Hamilton has a national following among mainline Protestants, and he built his Church of the Resurrection over 35 years in the Kansas City area, reaching about 22,000 members. In Johnson County, where the church is based, Hamilton also benefits from a county that the report described as increasingly competitive for Democrats, contrasting with a long-running Republican record in statewide Senate races.
The story also detailed how Hamilton’s church expanded from a small chapel at a funeral home to multiple campuses. It said worshippers now gather at nine campuses and that the main campus sits on 76 acres (30 hectares) in an affluent suburb; it also cited the church’s Christmas Eve offering, saying it sometimes tops $2 million.
Beyond church-building, the report said Hamilton has written dozens of books and that his video-based lessons are popular for Sunday school across the country, including his appearance in 2013 at the National Prayer Service. It also said Hamilton’s political positions have been shaped by decades of sermons and more recent public-facing material such as podcasts and Facebook videos, even though he has not run for public office before.
Questions about Hamilton’s politics appear to focus on how his faith and messaging translate to issues that voters expect from candidates. The report said Hamilton described his congregation as nearly evenly split among Republicans, Democrats and independents, and that he characterizes himself as “a liberal conservative and a conservative liberal.” On abortion, the report said Hamilton told a listening tour audience earlier this month that he voted in 2022 against a state constitutional amendment that would have cleared the way for tighter abortion restrictions or a ban in Kansas. It said he also told listeners that lawmakers should not be “the ethicists and the spiritual guides” for women and that he has counseled rape victims, while also adding that his mother considered an abortion when she became pregnant with him as a teenager, saying, “I feel both of these things at the same time.”
The report said Taylor argued Hamilton’s stance was inconsistent, stating that Hamilton “couldn’t decide he was pro-choice until last week.” It also said state Rep. Alexis Simmons reacted to Hamilton’s announcement on Facebook with, “Why would we go backwards?” followed by “Sorry but no,” and then “It’s 2026.”
Hamilton’s candidacy will face additional pressure from the broader political landscape heading into the midterm election year. The report said polling shows many Americans believe the U.S. military action against Iran has gone too far and that voters are increasingly worried about what they described as Trump’s failure to address affordability issues, while also noting that Johnson County’s demographics have shifted over recent elections and help explain why Kansas has had a Democratic governor.
The election will ultimately test whether Hamilton’s religious prominence and outreach model can translate into votes for the Democratic nominee in a state where Republicans have dominated nationally for decades, even as Democrats view the party’s prospects as more competitive than they were a year ago.