by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
A 61-year-old white, male minister of a protestant megachurch in America's heartland does not sound like your average Democratic candidate for a major federal political office, but that is exactly who Adam Hamilton is and what he is doing.
Reverend Hamilton founded the Resurrection Church of Leawood, Kansas, in 1990, with a mission of attracting congregants who were not regular attendees of a church, and over the next thirty-six years his small church has blossomed into the largest United Methodist congregation in the United States. Not too shabby for a fellow who started literally from scratch and holding his early services in the borrowed facilities of a funeral home. Today the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection has over 24,000 members, including several satellite facilities in the KC metro area and even downtown.
Kansas, which will occasionally elect a Democrat as governor, has not had a Democratic US Senator since the last one, George McGill, left office in January of 1939, giving it the dubious distinction of being the state with the longest continuous period of not having a Democrat in the US Senate. Adam Hamilton aims to change that, and by most accounts it is entirely possible that if he gets the Democratic nomination, he could defeat Kansas Republican Senator Roger Marshall, a man who spends much of his time residing in Florida, in the November general election.
I became aware of Rev. Adam Hamilton earlier this week when I read an article on-line which stated that he had been toying with the idea of running for the Senate from Kansas as an Independent, but had done a listening tour of the state where people encouraged him to run as a Democrat instead so that he would not split the anti-Marshall vote in November. Last week Hamilton filed for the US Senate seat as a Democrat, a move that was not popular with the Kansas GOP which immediately began lobbing sour grapes and accused Hamilton of using church assets to further his candidacy - and urged the feds to investigate.
I have an old friend in Kansas, though not as old as me, who has three passions in life of which I am aware: his grandchildren, his religion, and politics. When I read about Reverend Hamilton's bid to become a United States Senator, I emailed my friend to learn more. As a part of his response, my friend replied that by filing as a Democrat instead of an Independent, he thought that if Hamilton won the Democratic primary - against eight other candidates, he would go on to defeat Roger Marshall.
My friend knows Kansas and its politics - and his prediction is good enough to garner a modest donation to Reverend Andrew Hamilton from me. A Democratic US Senate seat from Kansas would be be a gift for the ages!
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The other Democratic candidates in the race are Christy Davis, Jason Hart,
Erik Murray, Anne Paralkar, Patrick Schmidt, Michael Soetaert, Sandy Spidel Neuman, and Noah Taylor; according to https://www.harvestblue.org/2026-candidates. The Kansas Secretary of State's website says that Damon Anderson and Kevin Latz have already filed to run. My friend Tobias Schliengensipen, a State Representative from Topeka, has endorsed Noah Taylor. On Saturday I had the pleasure of meeting Erik Murray. I find both of these candidates credible. Murray has taken no PAC money and leads this year's cohort of senate candidates in fundraising. For his part, Taylor has been leveling the deck guns at Roger Marshall like Ukrainian drones destroying Putin's Black Sea Shadow Fleet. IT IS A GOOD YEAR TO BE A DEMOCRAT IN KANSAS!
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