Key points:
- The Rev. Adam Hamilton is running to unseat Republican Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas.
- The United Methodist pastor is trying to build a bipartisan base like the one he has enjoyed at Church of the Resurrection for 36 years.
- Hamilton leads the Democratic candidates in name recognition and is poised to set a Kansas fundraising record, receiving $3.66 million in the initial two months of his campaign.
A United Methodist pastor is seeking to become the first Democrat to be elected to the U.S. Senate from Kansas in nearly a century. It’s not a “Hail Mary” campaign.
“The first nine weeks have been really exhausting,” the Rev. Adam Hamilton told about 20 people gathered around a table at No. 7 Coffee House, a popular gathering place with Bible verses displayed on its walls. He’s led many such meetings, with large and small audiences, in homes in well-heeled neighborhoods, coffee shops, brew pubs and anywhere else he can make his pitch.
As he dashes about the state making appearances, Hamilton looks fit and refreshed, his white dress shirt and dark slacks unrumpled and not a drop of sweat on his brow, despite temperatures hovering above 90 degrees.
Hamilton is more than a United Methodist pastor. He’s the leader of the largest United Methodist congregation in the country, Church of the Resurrection. It has about 24,000 members in nine locations in Kansas, Missouri and Ohio.
On the campaign trail and beyond, Hamilton is trying to build a bipartisan base like the one he has enjoyed at Resurrection for three decades.
“Part of why I think it can work is I’ve watched it work at Church of the Resurrection, where we’re roughly evenly divided between Republicans, Democrats and independents,” Hamilton said. “Thirty-five percent of our congregation are Republicans, 35% Democrats, 30% independents.
“And they love each other and they serve together side by side, and they are brought together by a common set of values, and they learn how to love their neighbor.”
For now, Hamilton has a lean team of about six people who travel with him. The organization will likely grow because Hamilton raised $3.66 million in the first two months of his campaign, putting him on track to set a record for the most money raised by a Kansas candidate in the first reporting period of a U.S. Senate campaign, according to the Kansas City Star.
In a poll of Democratic and left-leaning independent voters ahead of the Aug. 4 primary election, Hamilton had the highest name recognition, 18%, of the 11 Democratic candidates competing for the Senate seat, the Kansas City Reflector reports. If he wins there, the goal is to unseat Republican incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall.
“I think this is really something special happening here,” said Tyson Brody, the communications director for Hamilton, who has worked on campaigns with Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
“Adam’s different because he’s just not a politician,” he added. “Adam is not from that sort of milieu. … He’s spent his life serving the nearest congregation. He looks to politics with fresher eyes, because ... he sees it with a moral clarity that I think is quite moving.”
Reasons for running
Hamilton met with United Methodist News at Hopping Gnome Brewing Company in Wichita in mid-July. Sipping a Diet Coke, he shared the reasons he entered politics at 62, just four years before he had intended to retire.
“Starting in January 2025, I was watching things that the Trump administration was doing that were an assault on American values and an assault on Christian values,” Hamilton said. “There were 10,000 children in the state of Kansas who were cut from receiving (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits.”
The U.S. Agency for International Development, with which the federal government provided foreign assistance, was shuttered in July of 2025.
“I’ve been in those countries where USAID was important,” said Hamilton, who adds that he has visited at least 10 developing countries. The image of tech trillionaire Elon Musk armed with a chainsaw to signify cutting the federal budget especially rankles him.
Hamilton said he is not opposed to budget cuts but thinks waste should be cut with “a scalpel rather than a chainsaw,” so successful programs can continue.
He also objects to the “militarization of (U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement).”
“ICE plays an important role in trying to protect us from people who shouldn’t be here, and yet suddenly ICE is showing up in military gear in northern cities, and they are terrifying people,” Hamilton said.
President Trump wouldn’t be so powerful if Congress stood up to him more often, he reasoned.
“I think about the big, beautiful bill that cut Medicaid,” he said. “I looked at the intransigence on the federal budget, and this is not Trump, this is Congress.”
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Resurrection responded by providing free food pantries, assisting federal employees during the government shutdown and helping others that need it. But there’s only so much any church, even a large one like Resurrection, can do.
Marshall, Hamilton’s opponent if he wins the primary election, has closely aligned himself with Trump. According to a poll released Jan. 28 by Tavern Research, the current senator is vulnerable.
Only 37% of the Kansas voting public have a favorable view of Marshall, and 38% viewed him unfavorably. In a head-to-head contest, Marshall leads Hamilton 54% to 46%.
Political maneuvers
Marshall and the state Republican Party have taken notice of Hamilton. Before he even officially entered the election, Hamilton got a text telling him he was being brought up on ethics charges by the Kansas GOP.
“I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s kind of funny,’ They must be a little afraid,’” Hamilton said.
He is not concerned about the ethics charge. It involves how he announced his plans to run for the Senate to his congregation at Resurrection. The complaint alleged that church resources were being used to further Hamilton’s political career.
Hamilton said his lawyers looked into the issue before he announced his candidacy and the complaint wouldn’t come to anything.
“We wanted to make sure that whatever we do is ethical, appropriate and pastoral,” Hamiliton said. “It’s helping our people (at Resurrection) be able to process the fact that their pastor of 36 years might be stepping away and doing something else. … These are my people. I have been their shepherd for 36 years.”
While Hamilton has continued as senior pastor of the church, he has reduced his schedule during the campaign and is leaving the preaching to his team of pastors and guest preachers.
The state legislature, predominantly Republican, also floated a plan that would involve Marshall resigning, so legislators instead of voters could fill the seat with a Republican until another election is held in two years.
“I think they’re going to know that this will feel to people across America like really dirty pool,” Hamilton said. “That’s going to put a huge national focus on this election, and I think that’s only good for us. I think in the end that means a whole lot more resources, a whole lot more people looking to see what’s happening here in Kansas, and I think it helps us in the end.”
Starting the day ‘on my knees’
Delores and Frank Rudkin, both United Methodists, attended the meet-and-greet at No. 7 Coffee House earlier this month. Delores Rudkin said Hamilton is “a breath of fresh air” in politics. She does not think him being a neophyte politician and a pastor are issues.
“I think it’s a plus because I know he’s conscientious and wants what’s best for the disenfranchised and everyone,” she said.
Julie Elder, chief executive of GraceMed, was visited by Hamilton and his entourage on July 8. She briefed him on the work of GraceMed, which provides heathcare to underserved people. After the meeting, she stressed that neither she nor GraceMed endorse candidates.
But Hamilton did make an impression on her.
“I love his passion for people,” Elder said. “That’s a really good quality, and he obviously seems very genuine about jumping in and helping the state and people within Kansas.”
Hamilton said he believes in separation of church and state, but that doesn’t mean his faith will be left behind if he wins.
If he goes to Washington to serve in the Senate, Hamilton is planning to “love boldly, serve joyfully and lead courageously,” to borrow a phrase from the denomination’s new vision statement.
“I do hope to show a picture of a Christian,” he said. “I pray every day. I start my day every day on my knees.
“As a person of faith, I carry my faith with me. I’m going to do that as somebody who happens to be a United Methodist pastor, and I hope that’s a witness for United Methodists, too, to say, ‘Hey, there’s one of our people up there.’”
Patterson is a freelance reporter based in Nashville. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
