There are 11 Democrats running for the US Senate in Kansas.
Rather than cover all 11 candidates, I will instead focus on the two leading candidates, Adam Hamilton and Christy Davis.
Before we discuss these candidates, we need a quick reality check.
It’s effectively impossible for a Democratic or Independent candidate to win a US Senate election in Kansas.
Republicans have won each of the 7 most recent US Senate elections in Kansas by more than 10%.
The last time Kansas elected a Democrat to the US Senate was in 1932, when the state elected George McGill.
That was so long ago, the picture we have for McGill is in black-and-white.
Kansas has been represented exclusively by Republicans in the US Senate for the past 87 years.
Republicans face a challenging political environment in 2026, because of Trump’s constant abuses of power and mismanagement of the economy.
Nevertheless, the political environment for Republicans in 2026 isn’t as bad as it was for Republicans during the height of the Great Depression, which is what it would take for Kansas to elect a Democrat to the US Senate.
Hamilton, Davis lead the pack
11 Democrats and 2 Republicans are running in the US Senate election in Kansas.
Two polls of likely Democratic primary voters found Adam Hamilton and Christy Davis are the leading candidates in the crowded field.
Hamilton sponsored a poll of 600 likely voters, which was conducted by the polling agency GBAO from July 13-16.
In the poll, Adam Hamilton led by 17%.
Adam Hamilton received 30%, Christy Davis received 13%, and Noah Taylor received 10%.
All other candidates received 5% or less.
An earlier poll also found Adam Hamilton and Christy Davis were the leading candidates in the Democratic Primary.
The poll was conducted by Change Research on behalf of Civic Clarity, a nonprofit that operates the Capitol Bee, a Kansas news organization.
The poll surveyed 1,022 likely Kansas Democratic Primary voters from June 11-15, and it was not commissioned by a candidate in the race.
Results were weighted to the expected primary electorate based on age, gender, race and ethnicity, education, and region.
The poll asked respondents who they would vote for in the Democratic Primary for US Senate, if the election were held today.
64% weren’t sure, 16% supported Adam Hamilton, 7% supported Christy Davis, 5% supported Patrick Schmidt, and all other candidates received 4% or less.
Damon Anderson, Jason Hart, Kevin Latz, and Michael Soetaert were not included as options in the poll, according to a Methodology document that describes how the poll’s questions were worded.
Respondents who weren’t sure were asked who they would vote for, if they had to choose.
The totals below include respondents who supported a candidate in the first question, and undecided respondents who indicated support for a candidate in the second question.
55% still weren’t sure, 18% supported Adam Hamilton, 10% supported Christy Davis, 7% supported Patrick Schmidt, and all other candidates received 4% or less.
Therefore, in the earlier Change Research poll from June, Hamilton led by 8%.
I encourage you to read the article the Capitol Bee wrote about their poll.
Adam Hamilton
Adam Hamilton is the Pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist church in the United States, which has about 24,000 members across nine locations in the Kansas City area.
Hamilton supports expanding Medicare drug price negotiation, reversing cuts to Medicaid, restoring Affordable Care Act subsidies, and protecting rural hospitals.
He opposes tariffs, wants to create a tax credit for first time home buyers, and wants to ban Wall Street investors from buying single family homes.
He wants to require data centers to pay their fair share of electricity costs, expand Medicare to cover vision and dental, and fight elder fraud and scams.
That sounds like a great platform to me.
Sometimes, Hamilton uses what I consider to be empty rhetoric, like this bland explanation for why he is running for Senate, which appears on the homepage of his campaign website.
“Adam is running for Senate because he believes we need to stop the chaos and corruption in Washington by actually listening, and bringing people together to solve problems. He isn’t a career politician; he’s a Kansan who believes we are better when we work together.”
Other times, Hamilton can sound like he actually has something to say.
For example, here is a quote that appears in an ad where Hamilton discusses cost-of-living concerns.
“America is more than a place. It’s an idea that all are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,” Hamilton says in the ad, according to the Kansas Reflector.
“Those rights exist not just for the wealthy few, but for all. Our leaders seem to have forgotten that and instead created a democracy that’s for sale to the highest bidder.”
A Political Liability
The Kansas Reflector reported on a story that could prove to be a political liability for Adam Hamilton, if he wins the Democratic nomination.
Scott Preston Moore, a former church volunteer, sexually molested teenage boys in 2005 at youth camp retreat hosted by the Church of the Resurrection, which Hamilton founded.
The Kansas Reflector examined court documents from criminal cases against Moore, which formed the basis of its reporting on the story.
The Reflector cites an appellate court decision that said camp leaders were “dismissive” of the boys’ claims that they had been molested.
The Reflector said court records indicated that church leaders didn’t initially report the incident to law enforcement or social services.
In 2006, church leaders alerted law enforcement and banned Moore from interacting with youth or vulnerable adults, after Moore entered campers’ rooms at night.
According to the Reflector, court records didn’t indicate any sexual molestation took place at the camp in 2006.
The Reflector discussed how the church changed its policies following these events.
“The church reevaluated its policies to better screen and train staff and volunteers, implementing a Safe Gatherings program, which requires at least two adults to supervise unrelated children and mandates immediate reporting of law, policy, or standards violations,” the Reflector reported.
“Nancy Brown, a former state legislator who served in the ’80s and ’90s and died in 2020, was one of the church leaders who investigated the boys’ 2005 reports. She developed a curriculum for the church to protect youths and vulnerable adults through a mandatory certification that eventually expanded, becoming the Safe Gatherings program, which is used in more than 10,000 organizations in 42 states.”
I believe this story poses a political liability for Adam Hamilton in the general election.
Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, the incumbent in the race, and his allies, will likely argue Hamilton failed to protect children from sexual abuse.
When I try to convince people to vote against Roger Marshall, I would prefer not to have to respond to this argument against Hamilton.
Christy Davis
Christy Davis served as the Kansas Director for Rural Development for the United States Department of Agriculture.
Davis lives in Cottonwood Falls, in Chase County, in eastern Kansas.
Davis supports funding healthcare and public schools, and reforming immigration policies to provide a pathway to citizenship while ending immigration practices that terrorize families.
The platform on Davis’s campaign website is short, and not very detailed.
“I’m Christy Cauble Davis and I'm running for US Senate because hard-working Kansans deserve a proven leader who shows up and works for them,” Davis wrote on her website.
“As a business owner, advocate, and public servant, I have generated billions of dollars of impact on the Kansas economy. As Kansas Director for USDA Rural Development, I oversaw major investments in business, infrastructure, housing, and healthcare projects in our state while also leading a nationwide effort to cut red tape.”
Christy Davis and Patrick Schmidt, two Democrats running for the US Senate in Kansas, have both delivered speeches at No Kings rallies hosted by Indivisible Manhattan, an organization where I am an active member.
Patrick Schmidt delivered a speech at our No Kings 3 rally.
Christy Davis delivered a speech at our No Kings 2 rally, which I watched, but did not record. I was impressed by Davis’s speech.
Christy Davis also stopped by one of our smaller rallies to talk to us.
Davis’s in-person campaigning is considerably more impressive than her campaign’s online presence.
Adam Hamilton has not visited our Indivisible chapter in Manhattan, Kansas.
Christy Davis has been campaigning for the Senate seat for considerably longer than Adam Hamilton.
Davis launched her campaign in August 2025.
Hamilton launched his campaign in April 2026.
Davis discussed her campaign in an interview with the Kansas Reflector.
Campaign Fundraising
Adam Hamilton has raised a lot of money for his campaign, since it was launched three months ago.
The following numbers represent the amount the candidates have raised from 2021 to 2026, based on information published by the Federal Election Commission.
Incumbent Roger Marshall (R) has raised $6.1 million.
Adam Hamilton (D) has raised $3.7 million dollars.
Christy Davis (D) has raised $194,000, considerably less than Marshall or Hamilton.
I have raised money for Davis's campaign.
I raised $57.16 for Christy Davis through the Democratic Victory Fund and Sunflower Democrats.
But fundraising alone isn’t enough for a Democrat to win a US Senate election in Kansas.
Barbara Bollier (D) ran against Roger Marshall in 2020.
Bollier raised more in a single quarter than any candidate in Kansas history, but Marshall still won the general election by 11.4%.
I believe Barbara Bollier was a stronger candidate than either Hamilton or Davis, and she still lost by more than 10%.
Michael Soetaert
Michael Soetart ran in the Republican Primary in the Kansas First Congressional District in 2020.
In a campaign email, Soetaert said he would likely be the next Speaker of the House if he was elected to Congress.
Soetaert called on Congress to dismiss, vacate, and expunge the Congressional Record of Trump’s first impeachment.
This year, Michael Soetaert is running as a Democrat in the US Senate Primary.
Discussing the Candidates
In all honesty, Democrats have no chance to win a US Senate election in Kansas.
Democrats might be able to make Republicans spend a lot of money on the US Senate election in Kansas, which Republicans won’t be able to spend on more competitive Senate elections, elsewhere.
Democrats also might reduce the Republican the margin of victory in the Senate race to less than 10%.
As far as I’m concerned, these are some paltry consolation prizes.
But let’s suspend our disbelief, and imagine a scenario where a Democrat actually wins a US Senate election in Kansas.
If that were to happen, Democrats would need everything to break in their favor.
That would include having an amazing top-tier candidate.
Democrats don’t have that this year.
Democrats had the perfect candidate when Barbara Bollier ran in 2020, and she still lost to Roger Marshall in the general election by 11.4%.
Adam Hamilton was late to adopt a policy platform.
But now he has one, and it’s really good.
Hamilton’s platform is considerably more detailed than Davis’s.
Nevertheless, in 2005, a church volunteer sexually molested teenage boys at a camp organized by Hamilton’s church, which he founded, and where he serves lead pastor.
Afterward, the church has changed its policies to prevent similar crimes from happening in the future.
I will happily vote for Adam Hamilton in the general election, if he becomes the Democratic nominee.
But I believe Roger Marshall, and allied groups that will spend money in the race, will be able to make this story into a serious political liability for Hamilton.
And Democrats would need everything to break in their favor to have a chance of winning a US Senate election in Kansas.
I really like Christy Davis, but her campaign’s online presence needs a lot of work.
And she needs a more detailed policy platform than she currently has.
Christy Davis has my preliminary endorsement in the Democratic Primary in the US Senate election in Kansas.
My endorsements are preliminary, and subject to change, based on subsequent developments.
But I imagine my endorsement in this race will likely remain the same.
Even if you don’t vote for Christy Davis, please make sure you vote for someone other than Michael Soetaert in the primary, to ensure he doesn’t win the nomination.
I don’t believe either Adam Hamilton or Christy Davis have what it takes to win the general election.
Hamilton is on track to win the Democratic Primary, and lose the general election.
A lot of Democrats will get their hopes up about defeating Republican Senator Roger Marshall, before having their hopes crushed by the ultimate outcome of the race.
There are a lot of competitive races in Kansas where Democrats have a real chance of winning.
In the primary, we can defeat the proposed constitutional amendment, and protect the Kansas Supreme Court from the influence of large campaign donors.
In the general election, Democrats have a real chance to win the Governor’s race, and defeat Kris Kobach in the Attorney General election.
With so many key races for the legislature decided by narrow margins, Democrats could break the Republican Supermajority in the Kansas House, if they work really hard to make it happen.
Democrats could also flip a seat on the Kansas Board of Education, in a district located in Johnson and Miami counties.
Just because Democrats don’t really have a chance to win the US Senate race, they could have a great general election in other, more competitive elections.
If you would like to make that a reality, consider donating to Sunflower Democrats, a fund I created to raise money for Kansas Democrats running in important and competitive races.
And if you found this article useful, consider supporting Meticulous Musings on Patreon.
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