By Anna Kaminski, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Kansas’ major U.S. Senate candidates are making their opponent’s vacation home a political sticking point as they pick apart each others’ histories and challenge their debate prowess before they have even appeared on a stage together.
The Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Democrat and United Methodist pastor in the Kansas City-area, invited U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, on Monday to debate him on the famous state fair stage in Hutchinson, where a gubernatorial debate is scheduled but a senatorial one isn’t, despite years of tradition.
In a letter to Marshall at an address in Sarasota, Florida – where the senator owns a vacation property – Hamilton also asked Marshall to participate in two additional televised debates and town halls across the state to “give voters the opportunity to ask questions directly and hear from both candidates.”
“These events are not about the campaigns,” Hamilton said. “They are about the people of Kansas. Voters deserve the opportunity to compare the candidates, examine our records and priorities, ask tough questions, and decide who they believe is prepared to represent them in the United States Senate.”
Marshall, who is finishing his first senate term, replied in kind hours later. He sent a letter to Hamilton in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, where the pastor and his wife appear to jointly own real estate near the resort body of water with the same name, according to county property records.
“Instead of writing press releases, we’ve been actively working with several news outlets to host and moderate a new debate at the fair,” Marshall wrote. “The State Fair is the perfect setting for you to explain to Kansas ranchers why you called cattle a source of ‘more carbon dioxide’ and said you’re ‘calling us to repentance, maybe changing your diet.’”
Marshall posted the letter to the social media platform X with the caption: “Looking forward to the debate.”
Hamilton defeated 10 other Democratic candidates in the Aug. 4 primary to compete against Marshall in November. The general election fight has ramped up since. Outside groups have begun to spend on attack ads on both sides, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) identified Kansas’ U.S. Senate race as a potential swing seat for Democrats, adding the state to the battleground map.
Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in nearly a century. Marshall, a Kansas native and former OB-GYN, served in the U.S. House before he was elected in 2020 to replace U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas).
Marshall has faced questions in recent years, and increasingly after the primary election, about how much time he actually spends in Kansas. According to his campaign, he is at the beginning of a 120-stop tour across the state.
Marshall has also faced scrutiny for leaving constituent town halls — or failing to attend them — and closing his public appearances to the general public.
He followed up the response letter with another post to X that addressed where he has spent his time.
“Over the last six years, I’ve averaged 185 days per year in DC doing the work you sent me to do,” he said, adding “130 days per year in Kansas with over 300 stops per year across the state, about 35 days of official travel, and 20 holiday/personal days. (Yes, some days I’m in both KS and DC.)”
He said speculation about his whereabouts has been “a lot of bologna from big government woke Democrats.”
Hamilton’s campaign didn’t confirm whether the property in Camden County, Missouri, was his, and it is unclear how much time he spends there. But county property tax records show the pastor and his wife, LaVon, own roughly an acre and a home in Climax Springs.
“Adam Hamilton lives in Kansas, listens to Kansans, and will fight to lower costs and expand access to healthcare as our Senator, from Kansas,” said Glynnis Harvey, a spokesperson for Hamilton’s campaign.
