Republican-turned-Democrat aims to flip Kansas Senate seat blue

Kansas's Senate contest is drawing unusual attention, with Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton, a pastor who switched from the Republican Party in April, challenging Republican incumbent Roger Marshall. A super PAC backing Hamilton, United Futures PAC, put up billboards in Kansas City and Wichita showing Marshall in a Hawaiian shirt on a beach chair, a jab at his Sarasota, Florida, vacation home. Kansas has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, though Marshall won in 2020 by 11 points, according to CBS News.

Political scientist Bob Beatty of Washburn University says conditions favor Hamilton: President Trump's approval in the state has dropped to 39%, diesel is up 79% from a year ago according to AAA, ranchers face losses of up to $600 per head after tariffs on Argentine beef were suspended, and ICE raids in western Kansas have worried employers. Marshall urged ICE to coordinate with local police but has mostly backed Trump's Iran strategy.

Polling is close. Emerson College/Nexstar put Hamilton at 45% and Marshall at 43% in mid-September, inside the 3. 6-point margin of error, and Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball both moved the race from Likely Republican to Lean Republican.

Summarized by PolitiKool from CBS News’s reporting. Read the full story at CBS News →