Trump Rallies in Kansas as Republican Senator Faces Unexpectedly Close Race
Donald Trump held his first Kansas campaign rally in eight years on Monday, speaking for 98 minutes to about 5,000 supporters at a multipurpose arena in Park City outside Wichita. The visit was meant to shore up first-term Republican Senator Roger Marshall, 66, an obstetrician-gynaecologist and former congressman who is running neck and neck with Democrat Adam Hamilton ahead of the 3 November midterms. No Democrat has won a US Senate seat in Kansas since 1932, yet Trump told the crowd the state was “tending toward the purple,” noting that it already has a Democratic governor, Laura Kelly.
Hamilton, 62, is a Methodist megachurch pastor and former Republican who founded the 24,000-member Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist congregation in the country. In the third quarter he reportedly raised $11m to Marshall’s $800,000. He opposes Trump’s tariff agenda and what he calls the president’s “erratic leadership.” Marshall, a staunch Trump ally who has embraced the debunked claim that the 2020 election was stolen, called Hamilton “too woke for Kansas,” citing protests against police, drag shows, racial apology and advice to stop eating beef.
Farmers have been squeezed by diesel near $6 a gallon after the Iran war, tariff plans that upset cattle ranchers, and immigration raids that kept some agricultural workers at home. Trump announced $8bn in harvest-season diesel support. Critics say his “desperation tour” nationalises races and turns the vote into a referendum that could cost Republicans the Senate and House two years after they took power. Trump, 80, who won Kansas by 16 points against Kamala Harris in 2024, branded Hamilton a “radical left lunatic,” attacked Abdul El-Sayed, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, and linked French unrest to Democrats. Several protesters disrupted the rally. Supporters including lawyer Brittany Jones, 33, still called a Hamilton win seismic; construction worker Thad Snider, 42, doubted it would happen.
Continue in the app — vote & join in ➔