Senate GOP PAC set to invest $14M in tight Kansas Senate race

The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), a PAC aligned with Republican Senate leadership, is upping its spending in Kansas as the race for Senate heats up.

The group plans to invest $14 million to support incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), according to a source familiar with the SLF’s plans. Much of that will go toward ads attacking the Democratic candidate, Adam Hamilton, a political newcomer and pastor who founded the largest United Methodist church in the country. This spending was first reported by Punchbowl .

Kansas is not usually a competitive opportunity for Senate Democrats, as a Democrat has not won a Senate seat there in nearly a century. But Hamilton’s profile paired with low approval ratings for the GOP and President Trump nationally are weighing down Republicans’ chances in even the reddest of states.

Last week, the SLF pivoted some money from North Carolina, where Democrat Roy Cooper leads the GOP’s Michael Whatley in polling for the race to succeed retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), to Kansas.

Cook Political Report and Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) both rate the Kansas Senate race as lean Republican — one notch away from the toss-up column. Cook rates North Carolina as leaning in Democrats’ favor, while DDHQ says the party is likely to clinch the open seat.