A beginner’s guide to the strange stories swirling around U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas
Oct 12, 2026 | 4:33 am ET
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U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican , appears Sept. 12, 2026, at the Kansas State Fair debate. (Photo by Jill Hummels for Kansas Reflector)
Welcome, newcomer, to the bewildering phantasmagoria of Kansas politics!
Perhaps you hail from another state and have been told by election forecasters, political pundits or your great-aunt Sally that Kansas’ U.S. Senate race has become unexpectedly competitive. Perhaps you’re a Kansan who smartly ignores politics most of the time . Perhaps you’re — like me — a masochist for political gossip.
Whoever you are, and wherever you come from, just know that U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas has a habit of stumbling into excruciatingly embarrassing news stories. National commentators repeatedly voice surprise at seeing Marshall in trouble.
Those of us following him in Kansas aren’t surprised.
Here’s a sampling of headlines from the past six years — from Marshall’s first campaign for Senate to the present — showing how deeply strange stories swarm around the former doctor. Yes, Democrat Adam Hamilton has his own issues (and Kansas Reflector has covered them at length). But he’s nothing compared to Marshall.
Unless otherwise specified, these stories come from Kansas Reflector. I’ve included links to each one so you can easily click through if you have questions. Enjoy this trip into the peculiar past and confounding psyche of Roger Marshall.
Roger Marshall was convicted of reckless driving in 2008. Here’s how it was erased ( and Kansas City Star, June 21, 2020)
Ah, the urtext of Marshall deep dives. Do the same rules apply to Marshall as the rest of us? Apparently not, as a district court judge transformed the “suspended jail sentence for the future Kansas Congressman and Republican U.S. Senate candidate into a slap on the wrist.” Was the prosecutor in the case “also the son of Marshall’s business partner and neighbor”? Yup!
Senator Roger Marshall acknowledges Biden victory after objecting to electoral votes (Travis Meier, Fox 4 Kansas City, Jan. 7, 2021)
Just after arriving in the Senate, Marshall voted to reject Joe Biden’s certification as the next president. An attempted insurrection followed, but that didn’t change Marshall’s mind. When the Senate reconvened, he still voted against the results — supporting those who would foil the peaceful transfer of power. He made sure to issue a statement saying he disagreed, though.
‘What a moron. Jesus Christ,’ Fauci mutters after terse exchange with Sen. Roger Marshall (Ariana Figueroa, Jan. 11, 2022)
That would be White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci. His words echo down through the years.
Marshall demands special parental warnings on television shows exploring gender issues (Tim Carpenter, May 7, 2022)
Overthrowing the government would be A-OK with the good doctor, but not talking about transgender people on TV shows. We have to draw the line somewhere.
This architect of Kansas’ tax policy failure mocks our state. Leaders can’t ignore recent history. (Clay Wirestone, Nov. 21, 2022)
Art Laffer promoted supply-side economics, the fringe theory that undergirded former Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax “experiment.” Wonder of wonders, he turned up on Marshall’s “Ag Talk” YouTube show a few years ago. Somehow, the two didn’t find time to explore the Kansas budget disaster.
Marshall, Estes offer enthusiastic support for U.S. House impeachment inquiry of Biden (Tim Carpenter, Sept. 13, 2023)
Sigh. I would love to write at length about some of these stories, but the sheer, dogged dumbness depicted strains my imagination. Yes, Marshall wanted an impeachment investigation into former President Joe Biden. Because of course he would.
Roger Marshall calls Kansas cabin home. Official trips took him near $1.2M Florida house ( and Sept. 25, 2024)
We’ve reached the second big kahuna of Marshall investigations, this corker from the Star about Marshall’s devotion to a “much larger and more expensive house that includes a boat dock on a bayou and is only a short walk away from Sarasota Bay” in Florida. Wonder why online wags taunt the senator as a “Florida man“? This is why.
Kansas lecturer on leave after ‘inappropriate reference to violence’ during class (Anna Kaminski, Oct. 9, 2024)
Marshall pops up here calling for the firing of a KU lecturer who made an inappropriately violent comment in class. Because he’s tending to the vital business of Kansas!
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall points to DEI hiring policies as factor in crash of flight from Wichita (Tim Carpenter, Feb. 4, 2025)
“U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas asserted President Joe Biden’s attempts to improve diversity among air traffic controllers by rejecting white male applicants factored in the catastrophic midair collision of a passenger jet from Wichita and a military helicopter.”
Kansas senator’s rural town hall meeting swamped by people mad at Trump administration (Calen Moore, High Plains Public Radio, March 1, 2025)
This town hall began the downward spiral around which Marshall’s re-election campaign still spins. He fled the event early and — to my knowledge — hasn’t held an open town hall since. That’s 19 months! The scene suggested that even rural Kansans didn’t support the vituperative chaos of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Marshall says paid agitators swamped Kansas forum. If he proves it, I’ll eat a copy of Project 2025. (Clay Wirestone, March 5, 2025)
I wrote this column, and the headline says it best. I still haven’t taken the smallest nibble.
RFK Jr., U.S. senator from Kansas find common ground on vaccines at contentious hearing (Anna Kaminski, Sept. 4, 2025)
As a former OB-GYN, Marshall might be expected to advocate for the health of newborns. Not when the ruddy face of RFK Jr. casts its spell! “By the time they’re 18 months, they’ve had 18 jabs,” Marshall proclaimed while the health secretary appeared before a Senate panel. “By the time they get to be old enough to vote, they have 76 jabs.”
U.S. Sen. Marshall of Kansas fears in-person town halls will lead to violence (Anna Kaminski, Sept. 29, 2025)
The headline says all you need to know. But this quote from Marshall perhaps explains why he’s struggling: “I’ve never seen such hatred coming out of people’s mouths at President Trump and his agenda. I don’t know why people are upset that the borders are safe and the price of gas and groceries are down and the economy’s looking better.”
Meet the Senate aide with a $44,000 taxpayer-funded commute (Daniel Lippman, Politico, Oct. 29, 2025)
“The top aide to Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas (Brent Robertson) charged $44,000 to taxpayers over the past two years in commuting expenses between Washington and Lynchburg, Virginia, where he lives, according to public records.”
‘Coordinated effort’: Kansas Republican leaders have a plan to cancel the 2026 U.S. Senate election (Clay Wirestone, June 19, 2026)
Here’s a crazy story nearly forgotten in the heat of campaign season. Marshall’s staff worked with Kansas legislative leaders on a law canceling the U.S. Senate election if he quit to work with the Trump administration. Legal experts suggested the move would be unconstitutional. But hey, Marshall tried overruling voters once already!
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas promises to refuse Trump administration appointment (Tim Carpenter, June 29, 2026)
Then “Meet the Press” asked Marshall about the law and he backtracked.
Marshall spent more time, taxpayer money near Florida property. It’s up for sale (Matthew Kelly, Kansas City Star, Aug. 24, 2026)
This important follow-up, also from the Star, reveals that “Marshall’s taxpayer-funded trips to the Sarasota area over three years were more extensive and more expensive than previously reported.” But he’s selling the Florida house now, so please don’t get mad at him.
A Doctor Sued 700 Patients for Debts; 81 Were Arrested. Now He’s a Senator. (Sarah Kliff, The New York Times, Sept. 9, 2026)
The recent pileup of bad Marshall news began with this story from the Gray Lady herself. Sure, it looks bad. Sure, it is bad. Contrary to what the doctor’s defenders say on social media, the arrests over unpaid bills weren’t inevitable: “Mr. Marshall’s lawyers repeatedly requested arrest warrants.”
Clamorous crowd dominates first Kansas U.S. Senate debate between Marshall, Hamilton (Anna Kaminski, Sept. 12, 2025)
“The scales of attendance at times tilted in Hamilton’s favor, as people booed, jeered and heckled Marshall’s answers.”
US Sen. Roger Marshall leaves paper trail in Florida while calling Kansas home (Anna Kaminski, Sept. 18, 2026)
Turns out that Marshall didn’t just own a home in Florida. He and his wife really lived there, applying for various licenses and sending paperwork from the Sarasota address. I’m sure it’s absolutely fine, though.
Senate aide’s side hustle raises questions (Daniel Lippman and Jacob Wendler, Politico, Oct. 7, 2026)
More Brent Robertson! This time, he reported “roughly $16,000 over the limit of what Senate staffers can make in outside income between 2021 to 2024.” The chief of staff’s lawyer said he was complying with ethics rules.
Roger Marshall’s complicated history of blurring the line between taxpayer dollars and campaign cash (Sherman Smith and Matt Fuller, Oct. 9, 2026)
This collaboration between the Reflector and MS NOW includes more startling revelations than you can shake a stick at, exposing the overlap between Marshall’s taxpayer-funded office and partisan political campaign. You hear a lot more about Robertson’s role in the senator’s office as well. Read it.
A Senator Facing Re-Election Settles a Bakery Bill, 6 Years Later (Tim Balk, The New York Times, Oct. 10, 2026)
Cookiegate! Or so it was dubbed by Hamilton’s campaign. We don’t need to hear any more about this, despite the repellant irony of a man who sued patients over unpaid medical debts stiffing a small-town bakery.
Marshall charged 18% on medical bills — more than other Kansas doctors who sued (Matthew Kelly, Kansas City Star, Oct. 11, 2026)
This latest dive into Marshall’s business practices arrived Sunday. Guess what? “The 18% annual interest rate Marshall applied to unpaid bills was by far the highest of the roughly 150 medical practices whose public records were reviewed by The Star.”
The incumbent surely yearns for Election Day, if only to end the pain.
As I wrote last month, none of this means Marshall will lose come Nov. 3. Republicans have money to burn and deep connections in the Sunflower State. The polling we’ve seen could be shaped by any number of confounding factors, such as conservative-leaning folks refusing to respond or Kansans wanting to send a message to Marshall.
You don’t have to be competent or even appealing to win elections as a GOP candidate in Kansas. Just look at former Gov. Sam Brownback (who for some reason endorsed Marshall on Saturday). He had all the charisma of pickled herring and kept winning elections.
Soon enough, Kansas Republican leaders will put Trump in the rearview mirror and pretend the past decade didn’t happen.
We’ll still be here
National reporters and pundits have descended on Kansas. You can barely browse news websites without stumbling across another article titled “Why scarlet-crimson-ruby-red Kansas might vote for a — gasp — Democrat for the first time in 5,000 years.”
Here’s a lesson I learned over the course of a career that deposited me in two swing states: Florida and New Hampshire. (Yes, I worked in Florida back when it was a swing state.) Those national reporters will leave. Those Sunday talk shows will stop analyzing us. Steve Kornacki will forget all he ever knew about Johnson County.
We’ll still be here. The steadfast staff of Kansas Reflector live and work here, in Kansas. We care about the people who live here. And we will keep writing them and the policy that affects their lives, regardless of a single high-profile election.
I’m happy to welcome newcomers. But please, stick around. We’ll do the same.
Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. His first book, “Opinionated: Kansas Journalists Who Proved Why Commentary Matters — Then and Now,” was published in September 2026 by the University Press of Kansas. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
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