It’s definitely shaping up to be a different election season than it seemed at the beginning of the summer as Trump’s approval rating continues to drop while the odds of the Democrats taking both houses of Congress are slowly improving. There are small, and possibly meaningless, signs of GOP nervousness across the electoral landscape. Here in WV Shelley Capito, who is famous for eschewing the hoi polloi she represents, announced she is going to visit all 55 WV counties to hear what people have to say. And my useless House rep, Riley Moore, has turned his Twitter account into a stream of white supremacist garbage as he fights off a charismatic challenger.
Over in Kansas a different kind of fight has broken out between Roger Marshall, the incumbent, and his Democratic challenger, Adam Hamilton. Actually, make that the Reverend Adam Hamilton as Hamilton is an ordained Methodist minister. And not just an ordained minister, but the head of a megachurch:
Hamilton’s church, Resurrection, has over 22,000 average attendance and nine locations in the Kansas City area. Hamilton announced his run for US Senate in April, saying his decades in ministry prepared him to be a bridge builder in Congress.
“In a world that feels more and more divided, I’ve had the privilege of being a pastor for 36 years of a church that’s roughly equally divided between Republicans, Democrats and independents,” said Hamilton at the time. “Our people love each other precisely because of their differences.”
During his campaign, he has emphasized the need to address tariffs, limited health care access, rising costs and workforce shortages caused by immigration policies. He also said he hopes to bring “decency” to Washington.
And yes, it is definitely different to be talking about a moderate as the head of a megachurch. The Republicans tried to use Democratic criticisms of megachurch pastors against Hamilton—and it didn’t work because the context is really different. For example, the Republicans tried to make a scandal out of the fact that under his leadership Resurrection church built a new, much larger campus, by saying that he somehow stole this money for his own personal gain. Well, as a veteran of my church’s vestry I can tell you that that money was 100% approved by both the parish council and by the congregation because that’s how it works in mainline church congregations.
And the attacks featured the now standard criticism that anyone who brings a learned background to the Bible is a heretic:
This year’s race is unusual because of attacks from the Christian right branding Hamilton a heretic.
At issue is a 2022 sermon, reposted on X after Hamilton won the Democratic primary in August. Hamilton cited New Testament passages to argue that non-Christians can receive “the saving grace of Jesus” after death, avoiding eternal torment in Hell.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas declared that Hamilton had rejected “the central tenets of Christianity,” quoting a verse in the Gospel of John where Jesus declares, “No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Marshall thanked Cruz for raising the issue, suggesting the sermon was “one of hundreds” of examples of Hamilton being out of step with Kansans.
Hamilton acknowledged that some Christians agree with Cruz — but cited other prominent Christians who might share his own view, including Methodist founder John Wesley and “Chronicles of Narnia” author C.S. Lewis.
“If he’s going to call me a heretic, he’s not the first,” Hamilton said. “He won’t be the last.”
Now on the other side you have Roger Marshall. The first thing you need to know about him is that he once shot a video telling everyone how great Kansas is. The only problem is that he was very clearly standing in Kansas City…Missouri as he was speaking. He’s since deleted the video and I can’t tell you how much I wish I had saved it.
The second thing you need to know about him is that he is a medical doctor who has sued over 100 of his own patients for nonpayment:
The doctor who sued the couple was Roger Marshall, now a senator from Kansas. Mr. Marshall, a Republican who is seeking re-election this fall, filed lawsuits against more than 700 patients with outstanding bills during his decades-long career as an obstetrician-gynecologist, according to a New York Times analysis of Kansas court records.
Patients were arrested in 81 of those cases for missing court dates, the records show. In an additional 13 lawsuits, Mr. Marshall’s lawyers sought warrants but it is unclear whether an arrest occurred.
They also garnished patients’ paychecks and bank accounts. They routinely charged patients an 18 percent annual interest rate.
The unpaid bills ranged from several thousand dollars to as little as $101. About half the lawsuits were filed under Mr. Marshall’s name and the rest by Heartland Regional OBGYN, the medical practice he solely owned from 1998 to 2012 and then co-owned with another doctor from 2013 to 2019.
Some facing lawsuits were new mothers with outstanding bills from their deliveries. Most lived in Barton County, a rural area with above-average uninsured and poverty rates.
In case you are wondering, yes, Roger Marshall is a loud and proud Christian.
The 2 candidates had a debate at the state fair last week and it didn’t go well for Marshall. Here are a few clips:
Now do I really expect Kansas to flip a seat that has been red for 100 years? No. But I’m glad there is a Democrat fighting for it anyway.
I’ll leave you with this: