Vol. II, No. 144 From Our Region to Yours
Politics

Kansas Elects First Democratic Senator in 94 Years; Anglers Say They Have Waited Longer for Less

Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton unseated Sen. Roger Marshall on Tuesday. This reporter followed the returns from a stock pond, where the fish were biting at roughly the same historic rate.

By 2 min read

Adam Hamilton, gray-haired in wire-rimmed glasses, a navy quilted vest and a light blue checked shirt, speaks into a handheld microphone and gestures with his free hand on an outdoor stage, with blurred trees behind him.
Adam Hamilton at a campaign rally in Newton, Kan., on Oct. 30. He would make a fine fishing guide. Patient, good with a crowd, and he has clearly been out in the weather. Photo: Leoniceno / CC0 via Wikimedia Commons

NEWTON, Kan. — Kansas elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday for the first time since 1932. Adam Hamilton, the founding pastor of the Church of the Resurrection in the Kansas City area, unseated Republican Sen. Roger Marshall. CBS News projected the result late Tuesday night.

The last Democrat Kansas sent to the Senate was George McGill, a Wichita attorney, in 1932. That is 94 years. This reporter has fished a stock pond off a gravel road north of Newton for a good part of that time, or at least it feels that way, and has a similar story to tell.

You put a line in the water. You wait. Seasons change. Your truck changes. Your knees change. One night, with no warning at all, the bobber goes under.

Kansas Democrats have been sitting on that dock since Herbert Hoover. They have watched the bobber through the Dust Bowl, the interstate highways, the moon landing and the invention of the cooler with wheels. On Tuesday it went under.

Hamilton leads the largest United Methodist congregation in the country, about 25,000 members. A pastor understands waiting better than most people. So does a man with a can of nightcrawlers and no particular place to be. This reporter believes the two professions have a great deal in common. Both involve standing up in front of a crowd and promising that something good is down there.

Marshall, a retired obstetrician, was elected to the House in 2016 and the Senate in 2020. He had held the seat for one term. In fishing terms, that is a single season on a good lake, and nobody owns a lake.

The race cost about $110 million, a record for the state. This reporter’s tackle box cost $14 at a hardware store in Hutchinson. It has never been outspent, and it has never won a Senate seat. Make of that what you will.

Hamilton campaigned in Newton on Oct. 30, under the trees, in a quilted vest. That is correct attire. This reporter wore a quilted vest to the pond on Tuesday and caught two bluegill and a perch, which is three more fish than Kansas Democrats had landed in the Senate since 1932.

Big Doris was not in Kansas on Tuesday. She does not travel. This reporter has seen her twice, in a lake he will not name, and both times it felt about the way the Hamilton campaign must have felt around midnight. You do not believe it. Then you do. Then you call somebody.

The raccoon that lives under this reporter’s dock, which leads the series 11 to nothing, declined to comment on the race. It did take the perch.

There are lessons here for any angler. Use the bait you believe in. Keep your line in the water longer than seems reasonable. And if anybody tells you a pond has been fished out, ask them when they last checked. In Kansas, the answer was 1932.

Politics →