Republican Sen. Roger Marshall and Democrat Adam Hamilton went head to head in a contentious debate Wednesday night, as polls show a toss-up race in ruby-red Kansas with less than two weeks until Election Day.
Marshall and Hamilton traded criticism and attacks over the Iran war, immigration enforcement, healthcare and tariff policy, as well as other controversies that have popped up during their unexpected battleground campaign.
Hamilton, a megachurch pastor and first-time candidate, presented himself as an “independent-minded Democrat.”
“I’m not somebody who favors the Socialist Party,” he said. “I’m somebody who stands in the middle. I’m going to try to work for all Kansans, Republicans, independents, and Democrats.”
Marshall warned viewers not to buy it, repeatedly casting Hamilton as an ally of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Marshall mentioned the New York Democrat 17 times throughout the hour-long debate.
“My opponent’s going to say anything he can to lie to get into that office and give control to Chuck Schumer,” Marshall said, though Hamilton has promised he will not support Schumer for party leader if elected.
At the opening of the forum, both candidates faced questions about controversies weighing down their campaigns. Marshall pushed back on reports that he sued hundreds of patients over unpaid medical bills when he was a practicing doctor, calling the allegations “blatant lies.”
Hamilton was pressed on whether his church properly handled reports of child sex abuse. He denied signing off on the accused perpetrator returning to the church camp, but he said, “I should have checked to make sure that he wasn’t going back. That was a mistake on my part.”
Marshall defended most of President Donald Trump’s agenda throughout the night, including his recent deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to lift sanctions on Russian diesel exports. The Republican senator also defended Trump’s tariffs on U.S. allies.
“The tariffs are working,” Marshall said, adding that tariff policy is leading to “manufacturing renaissance” because jobs are coming back to the US.
Hamilton countered that tariffs are alienating trading partners and allies of the U.S. “This is creating instability, chaos, and corruption,” he said.
Hamilton slammed Marshall for supporting the war in Iran “again and again,” while the first-term senator said he wants to see the conflict end “as soon as possible.” Marshall placed the blame for high gas prices on Ukraine.
“The real problem with the cost of diesel, in particular, number one, is the Ukraine war, and because of that, diesel production has gone down,” Marshall said. “But beyond that, why are we dependent upon diesel imports? It’s because of the Green New Deal policy that my opponent supports.”
Asked to name one point of disagreement between himself and Trump, Marshall pointed to a flurry of ICE raids targeting meatpacking plants in southwest Kansas. Marshall said he called Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to tell him the action was not “quite right,” and he publicly urged ICE to do a better job coordinating with local law enforcement.
Marshall compared his relationship with Trump to his relationship with his wife.
“Just like with my wife, I can disagree with her. Now, my wife is always right, and President Trump is not always right,” he said. “But I do think that we — it’s great that I have a relationship that I can pick up the phone and discuss with him the pros and cons of what he’s contemplating.”
Republicans are pouring resources into the race to keep Hamilton from becoming the first Democratic senator from Kansas in nearly a century. Trump headlined a rally near Wichita on Monday to drum up support for Marshall, while a top Republican super PAC launched a $14 million negative ad blitz targeting Hamilton.
“I hate to say it — you’re sort of tending toward the purple,” Trump told his rally crowd on Monday. “We’re going to re-elect Roger Marshall, one of the greatest, and we’re going to defeat the communists, the jihadists, and the corrupt anti-American lunatics once and for all.”
Wednesday’s meeting between Marshall and Hamilton was their second and final debate. Marshall was met with boos and chants from a live audience throughout their first debate last month at the Kansas State Fair.