Clamorous crowd dominates first Kansas U.S. Senate debate between Marshall, Hamilton

HUTCHINSON — Incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall and the Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Democrat, confronted a raucous crowd Saturday defending their stances on tariffs, the war in Iran and partisan politics.

The two major party candidates running for U.S. Senate appeared in their first post-primary debate together in front of hundreds of people who filled the bleachers at the Kansas State Fair. 

The scales of attendance at times tilted in Hamilton’s favor, as people booed, jeered and heckled Marshall’s answers.

Marshall defended his record on agriculture and was forced to reckon with his loyalty to President Donald Trump, though he said he disagreed with Trump’s promise to offer $5,000 to every U.S. adult if Republicans won the midterms.

“This is not the first time I’ve disagreed with President Trump, and it probably won’t be —” Marshall said before he was cut off by shouts from the crowd. “You know, instead, I’m going to be focused on Kansas jobs. I’m going to be focused on protecting Kansas agriculture and the Kansas cattle industry.”

Hamilton said: “This is exactly what’s wrong in Washington, D.C., right now.”

The debate was hosted by WIBW 580 Radio and featured questions from a panel of three journalists, including Kansas Reflector senior reporter Tim Carpenter. Absent from the stage was David Graham, a Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate from Overland Park, who wasn’t invited to participate.

Marshall is finishing his first term in the U.S. Senate, having previously served two terms in the U.S. House and working as an obstetrician gynecologist in Great Bend before that. Hamilton is the founder of one of the largest United Methodist churches in the country, Church of the Resurrection, which is a multi-campus operation headquartered in Leawood.

Hamilton beat out nine other Democratic candidates in the August primary and out-fundraised Marshall.

Marshall tried to paint Hamilton as anti-agriculture, against the cattle industry and against oil and gas. 

“If he had his way, he’d go put a plastic bag over the mouths of these dairy cows back here,” Marshall said, motioning to the livestock building on the state fairgrounds.

Hamilton slammed Marshall’s record in the U.S. Senate, criticizing his support for Trump’s tariffs, inaction on the war in Iran and cuts to healthcare and food assistance.

He said the Trump administration’s recent decision to import beef from Mexico was “a slap in the face” to Kansas cattle producers and “came exactly at the wrong time.”

He said Marshall was voted to be a champion for Kansans, not “a spokesperson for the White House.”

Marshall said the decision was because of drought, the “smallest cattle herd of my life,” and “government overregulation.” The Democratic party has “strangled the ag industry,” he said.

“My opponent is too woke, he’s too weak and he doesn’t stand for anything,” Marshall said.

But Hamilton was firm in his belief that the country is going in the wrong direction.

“You’ve got to have courage,” Hamilton said, “and courage is when you stand up to your president and your party, and you say, ‘This is hurting people back home.’ And you say it even if your president’s going to bully you, pick on you, primary you, and call you names. You still say, ‘This is not OK.’ ”

Graham, the Libertarian who will appear on the November ballot as an option for U.S. Senate, watched the debate from the pavilion’s bleachers.

He said he is a better option for voters than either Marshall or Hamilton because he wouldn’t be beholden to leadership of either the Republican or Democratic party. That would allow him to do what’s best for Kansans, he said.

Graham, who noted that he doesn’t own a home outside of Kansas, said if he could have appeared onstage, his opening statement would have been about the need for less government and more freedom.

“When we do that, we’ll have free enterprise that takes care of a lot of these problems for themselves,” Graham said. “Problems involving inflation, which is due to overregulation. Problems involving the cost of health care. We’ve never really tried the free enterprise system, so that would be my opening statement. I believe in transparency in government, and I think we ought to have serious criminal justice reform.”

Hamilton and Marshall also answered questions about their multiple homes — Marshall’s vacation property in Florida and Hamilton’s vacation home in the Missouri Ozarks — controversies that have arisen during their campaigns, health care, the job market, immigration and the national debt.

Sherman Smith contributed to this report.