Kansas Senate Fight Finds Farmers Divided, Parties Unevenly Engaged
WHO:
The Washington Post - Republican Sen. Roger Marshall is running against Democrat Adam Hamilton, a megachurch pastor, in the Kansas Senate race.
CBS News Politics - Kansas farmers are divided in their loyalties in the Senate race between Marshall and Hamilton.
The Daily Beast - Nate Silver changed his rating of the Kansas Senate race; Cook Political Report’s Jessica Taylor criticized Marshall’s campaign.
WHAT:
The Washington Post - The Washington Post and George Mason University began contacting voters in Kansas for a poll on the Senate contest.
The Washington Post - Hamilton is seeking to become Kansas’s first Democratic senator since the Great Depression.
CBS News Politics - Farmers are facing rising fertilizer and fuel costs, drought, and low crop prices.
The Daily Beast - Silver shifted his rating of the race from “tossup” to “Lean D” on Silver Bulletin; less than a month earlier, he had changed it from “Lean R” to “Tossup.”
The Daily Beast - An Emerson College Polling survey showed Hamilton leading Marshall by four points: 49 percent to 45 percent.
The Daily Beast - Silver’s polling average put Hamilton at 49 percent, up from 47.4 percent before the Emerson poll, while Marshall remained just below 46 percent.
The Daily Beast - A CNN/SSRS survey also showed Hamilton leading by four points.
The Daily Beast - Taylor said Marshall “probably wins the award for running maybe the worst campaign” and said he “could have put this race away earlier.”
The Daily Beast - Taylor said the National Republican Senatorial Committee had told its incumbents to prepare for a tough election cycle, and Marshall “did not apparently heed that.”
WHERE:
The Washington Post - The contest is in Kansas, described as one of the country’s most competitive but least-polled Senate races.
The Daily Beast - Trump won Kansas by 16 points in 2024; no Democrat has won a Kansas U.S. Senate race since 1932.
The Daily Beast - Trump said he plans to campaign for Marshall in Salina.
WHY:
CBS News Politics - Rising input costs, drought, and low crop prices have pushed Kansas farms “to the edge,” scrambling farmers’ political loyalties.
The Daily Beast - The article attributes Republicans’ difficult political environment partly to Trump’s war and the resulting price increases; Kansas average gas prices rose by more than $1 and diesel by more than $2.50 since the war began.
HOW:
The Daily Beast - Trump changed plans from an in-person rally for Marshall to a tele-rally, then reversed course and said he would campaign for Marshall in person.
(UPDATED October 31, 2026 07:01 UTC)
Democrat Adam Hamilton leads Republican Senator Roger Marshall by four points in Kansas polls. Rising costs, drought, and weak crop prices are dividing farmers’ loyalties in the competitive race. Nate Silver now rates the contest “Lean D,” while Trump plans an in-person campaign visit.