Marshall, Hamilton set to take debate stage in tight Kansas Senate race

The top candidates in the Kansas Senate race will face off on the debate stage on Wednesday evening with less than two weeks until Election Day.

Incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall (R) is fending off a challenge from Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton in a race that has grown increasingly competitive.

The pair will face questions about issues like economic growth, infrastructure and healthcare during the event hosted by Nexstar Media Group, The Hill’s parent company. The debate will kick off at 7 p.m. in Kansas City, Mo. and run for one hour.

The race has tightened in recent weeks, eliciting concern among Republicans that Hamilton, a prominent pastor and moderate Democrat, could be successful in his effort to oust Marshall from his Senate seat.

Election handicappers, like Sabato’s Crystal Ball and The Cook Political Report , have shifted the race to a “toss up” amid the Democrat’s rise in the polls. Marshall and Hamilton were tied up in a New York Times survey conducted at the end of last month, with each candidate displaying narrow leads within the margin of error in other recent polls.

During a Sept. 12 debate at the Kansas State Fair hosted by local outlet KWCH 12 News, the two candidates sparred over the Trump administration’s tariffs and military operations against Iran.

The Republican incumbent faced jeers from the crowd during his answer to a question about the Iran war and a group of protesters shouted “shame on you” during his response to another question about how he handled unpaid medical bills when he was a doctor in a rural Kansas community.

Marshall has attacked Hamilton as a “megachurch pastor” and pointed to his sermons to claim that the Democratic candidate is “woke” on issues like gender and sexuality, climate change and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Kansas has historically elected Republican candidates to the U.S. Senate and White House. State voters have occasionally elected moderate Democrats to the governor’s office.

In 2024, President Trump won the Sunflower State by 16 points, but he has seen his approval ratings in the state waver amid rising nationwide discontent with his administration’s tariffs and rising costs amid the Iran war.

Trump stumped for Marshall on Monday evening at a rally in Wichita, Kansas, in which he used an antisemitic slur to defend the Republican incumbent for reports that he sued hundreds of his patients for unpaid medical bills.

“He was mandated by law to request, strongly, money owed from patients. You’re not allowed not to do it, you have to by law go after those people,” the president said, before using a slur to describe how he felt the reporting characterized the candidate.

Hamilton said on Monday he was “glad” the president was campaigning for his opponent, telling CNN’s Jake Tapper he viewed Trump’s travel to Kansas as a “big compliment.”

“I took it as a statement that the Republican Party felt they needed to send the most powerful man in the country to try to save Roger Marshall, and I think it’s only going to hurt him,” Hamilton said, adding, “So I’m glad he’s here.”