{"id":76983,"date":"2026-08-04T21:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T02:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/04\/big-money-propels-dem-megachurch-pastor-to-victory-in-longshot-kansas-senate-bid\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T21:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T02:26:08","slug":"big-money-propels-dem-megachurch-pastor-to-victory-in-longshot-kansas-senate-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/04\/big-money-propels-dem-megachurch-pastor-to-victory-in-longshot-kansas-senate-bid\/","title":{"rendered":"Big money propels Dem megachurch pastor to victory in longshot Kansas Senate bid"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kansas Democrats have made their choice in one of the most crowded primary battles in the nation and are backing a political newcomer with an eye-popping campaign war chest.<\/p>\n<p>Adam Hamilton emerged victorious in an 11-way primary Tuesday night in the race to take on incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who is running for a second term in the <a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/category\/politics\/senate\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">upper chamber.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>And he has a line of attack against Hamilton already teed up.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/democrats-blink-schumer-helps-gop-clear-shutdown-hurdle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>DEMOCRATS BLINK AS SCHUMER HELPS GOP CLEAR KEY SHUTDOWN HURDLE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Look, this guy is a woke, big megachurch pastor,&#8221; Marshall told Fox News Digital. &#8220;He&#8217;s too woke for Kansas. I think all we have to do is share his own sermons \u2026 with the Kansas people, and they&#8217;re gonna realize that he&#8217;s too woke for Kansas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>History is on the side of Marshall, who previously served four years in the House before making the leap to the Senate in 2020. That\u2019s because Kansas has not sent a Democrat to the Senate in nearly a century. The last time was in the 1930s, when Kansans elected former Sen. George McGill. He only served one term before being ousted by a Republican.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/trump-demand-puts-vulnerable-republicans-impossible-spot-ahead-midterms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>TRUMP DEMAND PUTS VULNERABLE REPUBLICANS IN IMPOSSIBLE SPOT AHEAD OF MIDTERMS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Still, he\u2019s not resting on his laurels as he stares down another likely funding disadvantage.<\/p>\n<p>National Republicans aren\u2019t dumping resources into Kansas like they are in other states, given that Marshall is a strong incumbent and valuable campaign cash is needed in tougher contests in Texas, <a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/politics\/maines-collins-locks-gop-nomination-race-critical-senate-control\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Maine and Ohio.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While Kansas is not on Senate Republicans\u2019 radar as a battleground state, there is big money flowing in that could make Marshall\u2019s bid for another term complicated.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/politics\/supreme-court-strikes-down-limit-party-campaign-spending-coordination-candidates\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>SUPREME COURT STRIKES DOWN LIMIT ON PARTY CAMPAIGN SPENDING IN COORDINATION WITH CANDIDATES<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hamilton, who leads the nation\u2019s largest United Methodist church and congregation, has raised just north of $4.1 million since launching his campaign in February, according to financial filings with the Federal Election Commission.<\/p>\n<p>Marshall, on the other hand, has raised just over $6.2 million during this cycle.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Well, this is probably why my staff tells me, no matter what the polls show, they tell me that we&#8217;re down by three points, and we did get outspent about four to one last time around. Regardless, we&#8217;re gonna keep working hard,&#8221; Marshall said.<\/p>\n<p>And as precious <a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/category\/politics\/elections\/campaigning\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">campaign resources<\/a> flow to other marquee races during this cycle, where the GOP has more vulnerable incumbents up for reelection than Democrats, Marshall isn\u2019t asking for a handout.<\/p>\n<p>He wants the resources from major GOP campaign arms, like the National Republican Senatorial Committee or the GOP leadership-aligned Senate Leadership Fund, to stay put.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I guess we&#8217;re trying to not need to do that,&#8221; Marshall said. &#8220;That&#8217;s what our hope is, is that they won&#8217;t need to do that. <a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/category\/person\/mitch-mcconnell\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Leader McConnell<\/a> was super helpful last time. So, you know, they&#8217;re keeping tabs on this. We got to, you know, we&#8217;re all one, big happy family here, so we&#8217;re hoping we don&#8217;t need them.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kansas Democrats have made their choice in one of the most crowded primary battles in the nation and are backing a political newcomer with an eye-popping campaign war chest. Adam Hamilton emerged victorious in an 11-way primary Tuesday night in the race to take on incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., who is running for a &#8230; <a title=\"Big money propels Dem megachurch pastor to victory in longshot Kansas Senate bid\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/04\/big-money-propels-dem-megachurch-pastor-to-victory-in-longshot-kansas-senate-bid\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Big money propels Dem megachurch pastor to victory in longshot Kansas Senate bid\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76983\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}