A sign seen during a Kansas GOP bus tour across the state in support of Republican candidates in an exceptionally competitive year. Kansas has a Democratic governor and Republican U.S. senators, but recent polls show voters could elect a Republican governor and a Democratic senator this year.
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Stephen Fowler/NPR
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DODGE CITY, Kan. — If there were ever a place to symbolize both the opportunities and obstacles that Democrats and Republicans face politically in these midterm elections, it would be Kansas.
Two years after President Trump received 57 percent of the vote, Kansas Republicans are grappling with the possibility that a Democrat could win a U.S. Senate race for the first time in nearly a century.
Adam Hamilton, an “independent-minded Democrat,” came out on top in several polls against Republican Senator Roger Marshall.
Both parties have reallocated tens of millions of dollars in recent weeks to try to shape this surprising race. The president announced Tuesday that he will campaign in Wichita next week for Marshall and other Republicans on the ticket.
But after eight years of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s limited term, Republicans are also hoping to regain control of the state’s highest office, providing one of the few opportunities for recovery in an otherwise daunting midterm environment.
State Senate President Ty Masterson, the Republican nominee, is leading in polls against Democratic Sen. Cindy Holscher in a race that is less nationalized than other competitive gubernatorial races across the country.
The last-minute shift in national attention to the Sunflower State reflects how unpopular Trump’s second-term agenda has become with voters, particularly in typically Republican Midwestern states that have been disproportionately hit by rising fuel prices and tariffs.
As early voting begins in Kansas, neither side is taking voters for granted.
“It’s a question of decency”
Adam Hamilton, Democratic candidate for Senate in Kansas, addresses voters in Lawrence, Kan., Monday, Oct. 12, 2026.
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Stephen Fowler/NPR
At an event in Lawrence on Monday, Hamilton told the crowd that his priorities, if elected, were to tackle affordability and health care, but also to restore “human decency” in politics.
“Now look, someone said to me, ‘Look, I don’t want someone who’s going to build bridges, I want someone who’s going to crush the Republicans,'” he said. “But here’s the problem: If you want that in a state where only 25 percent of the population is Democratic, you’re never going to get them elected.
“And if you did, they would become part of the problem instead of the solution.”
Hamilton is the founding pastor of Church of the Resurrection, the nation’s largest United Methodist congregation on its multiple campuses, and positions himself as a moderate voice seeking to tame the rabid partisanship that has dominated modern politics.
“We need to find solutions that will be a compromise between what the Republicans and the Democrats want, but will ultimately result in something unlike what’s happening now, where that doesn’t happen very often,” he said.
At a time when the Democratic Party is also unpopular with voters, Hamilton is quick to point out that he is not a Democrat you would find in a blue state.
“We’ve tried to make it clear in our ads that a Democrat in Kansas is a little different than a Democrat in New York or a Democrat in Los Angeles, and not just a little bit, but a lot different,” Hamilton told NPR.
This is also reflected in the many endorsements of conservatives, including former Kansas Republican Governors Mike Hayden and Bill Graves.
Hamilton also spoke to NPR about a recent event in which Republican Party leaders said they were going to vote for him.
“There were Republicans saying, ‘We have to do better,’” he said. “You represent our values. You represent the character we look for in someone in a leadership position. And we know you’re going to fight for both the Republicans and the Democrats. And they’re absolutely right.”
Most of his speeches end with a callback to the “Wizard of Oz,” with Hamilton saying that Washington needs more senators “who have a brain and use it, who have a heart and empathize with it, and who have courage and speak out because of it.”
Hamilton’s campaign is also buoyed by backlash over many elements of President Trump’s second term, including tariff policies and rising fuel prices, which have proven unpopular, causing the Republican Party’s approval ratings to plummet.
A contrasting Republican to lead the state
Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall speaks to supporters during a campaign stop in Newton, Kan. President Trump will campaign for Marshall and other candidates in Wichita next week.
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Stephen Fowler/NPR
Even though Republicans face a tighter-than-expected Senate race, the party remains optimistic about its ability to regain control of the governor’s office after eight years at the helm from Democrat Laura Kelly.
The Kansas Republican Party is on a weeklong bus tour across the state, bringing a mixed message that is more focused on the state than on handling the difficult national environment for the party.
Masterson, the Republican candidate for governor, said in Dodge City that solving issues like affordability and lower energy prices would require putting a Republican back in the state’s top job.
“There has never been a clearer choice than in this election,” he said. “If you want working families to be able to afford to live, if you want to stop taxing people on their homes and businesses and farms, if you want safe communities, lower energy prices, which means lower food prices… It’s not really a choice. You have to vote Republican.”
During their campaign, the candidates pointed to Kelly’s frequent vetoes of measures by the large Republican majority in the Legislature — and overrides of those vetoes — as a motivating factor in getting voters to the polls.
State Rep. Pat Proctor, the Republican candidate for secretary of state, said that in addition to the state’s history of alternating support for governors from both parties, there is strong precedent for continuing to support Republicans.
“We are closer to where Kansans are on all individual issues,” he said. “And when they hear us talk and they look at what we’re actually doing, we’re closer to where they want Kansas to be.”
While Republicans in other states may have to deal more with Trump’s shadow on their own campaigns, campaign speeches rarely mention the president or his unpopular policies. Rather, it was about presenting Democratic candidates as extremist and out of touch with reality.
For his part, Marshall described Hamilton as too liberal, saying he would destroy Kansas’ cattle, agriculture, and oil and gas industries if elected.
“Kansans should know that my opponent, Adam Hamilton, is the most radical liberal person to ever win a primary in the state of Kansas,” he said to applause.
Still, Marshall has been dogged by negative headlines over the past month, starting with a debate at the Kansas State Fair where the senator was repeatedly shouted down by the crowd.
Marshall’s campaign also faced pushback after the release of an attack ad claiming Hamilton was “protecting a pedophile” and using images of two unrelated people. companiesand paid an unpaid bill from a cookie store after a viral social media post claimed the campaign had failed to pay for six years.
Kansas is one of the few states that currently has a senator from one party and a governor from the other party, and one of nearly ten states where voters could also split their choices for these key positions next month.
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