Is Roger Marshall the Worst U.S. Senator in Kansas History?

My home state of Kansas once elected men and women of substance to the U.S. Senate. Elected Republicans were generally conservative but capable of working in a bipartisan environment to pass significant legislation.

Former Senator Bob Dole was no liberal, but he worked across the aisle with Democrats to enact the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum was an extraordinary and thoughtful member of the U.S. Senate. Working across the aisle with then Senator Ted Kennedy, they enacted the Kennedy Kassebaum bill, today more widely known as the HIPAA Act, which protects the medical records of Americans.

Dole and Kassebaum did the hard work of passing meaningful laws that still help Americans today. They were serious legislators, not presidential cheerleaders.

Now we have Roger Marshall.

I have spent my entire adult life working on human service issues in Kansas and across the United States. I have seen and worked with amazing and effective elected officials, both Republicans and Democrats. I know what independent judgment looks like.

Marshall has none. At least none that he is willing to show.

He seems to think his job as U.S. Senator is to endorse and cheer on every egregious overreach by Donald Trump. Every tariff idea. Every Medicaid cut dressed up as waste and fraud. Every cruel domestic policy aimed at immigrants who came here seeking freedom from oppression, extreme poverty, and the potential death of their entire families.

He cheers it on.

Farmers in Kansas are living with the consequences of Trump’s erratic tariff policies and unpredictable domestic decisions. Rural hospitals are closing. Medicaid is being gutted. Older Kansans are being shut out of nursing home beds. People with disabilities are losing services.

And Marshall’s answer is to clap louder.

Now we are watching Donald Trump, in the early days of war against Iran, killing that nation’s Ayatollah and Supreme Leader, with no plan for how Iran, a nation of 90 million people, will function in what he calls their greatest opportunity for freedom and self-governance. Marshall has tried to appear mildly supportive of Trump’s war, but he safely says nothing yay or nay about this week’s newest war, other than offering his thoughts and prayers for the safety of American troops. Kansans would like to hear exactly what Marshall thinks about Trump’s war of choice, but Marshall is too afraid of a bad tweet from Trump to say anything with clarity.

Read his statements carefully. They are masterpieces of saying nothing.

He is waiting for instructions from MAGA allies on what he should say that conveys nothing but sounds like something.

Meanwhile, he avoids meeting constituents in a public forum. We all remember Oakley. He ran away from his own constituents, who asked him to answer direct questions about his performance in the U.S. Senate, Trump’s irrational behavior, and the use of the presidency to enrich his family by billions of dollars.

A United States Senator running out the door.

That moment stuck with people.

Here is the political reality. Marshall’s failures have encouraged a crowded Democratic primary.

That does not happen in Kansas unless people smell weakness.

There are strong, decent Democratic Senatorial candidates encouraged by the possibility of defeating Marshall in November 2026. They believe, and not irrationally, that Marshall is vulnerable as he seeks a second term to cheer every foolish thing Trump has done and will do, unless and until he is impeached and removed by a two-thirds vote of the U.S. Senate, including Republicans who may finally find the courage to renounce him.

My friends tell me I am unhinged to believe that the senior Senator from Kansas, Jerry Moran, may eventually come around and denounce Trump. Maybe they are right.

Marshall will never abandon Trump’s skirts. He is too invested in being the Chief Bootlicker.

Into this environment steps Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Mega Church leader, who has suggested he might run as either an independent or a Democrat.

Hamilton does not seem to grasp that it is highly unlikely Kansans will elect a pastor/candidate based on name recognition from Sunday television sermons and a large church membership. Running a church and running a statewide campaign are two very different things.

His candidacy is unlikely to earn the Democratic nomination. And if he runs as an independent, Rev. Hamilton will almost certainly ensure Marshall’s reelection by splitting the anti-Marshall vote.

That would be a gift to Marshall.

There are strong Democratic candidates in the primary, including retired Ameriprise executive Sandy Spidel Neumann, former Biden USDA official Christy Davis, real estate developer Erik Murray, and the young and newly minted Kansas State Senator Patrick Schmidt. Some have suggested that Third District U.S. House Rep. Sharice Davids may give up her safe seat to run for the Senate. However, it appears she may be using that possibility strategically to discourage Republican redistricting efforts.

Among the declared candidates, I believe the strongest Democratic candidate is Sandy Spidel Neumann.

She understands policy. She understands Kansas communities. She understands that agriculture is not a talking point and that Medicaid is not an abstract budget line but a lifeline.

Born in Topeka, raised in Overland Park, a graduate of Shawnee Mission North High School, Sandy Spidel Neumann worked on her uncle’s Kansas farm during harvest and later became Vice President of Ameriprise. She understands business. She understands families trying to make ends meet during economic uncertainty. And she will not run away from meeting with her constituents.

Marshall, meanwhile, passes no important bills that materially help struggling Kansans who are sick and tired of Trump’s failing economy, his inability to address inflation coherently, and his irrational support for tariffs that directly harm the agricultural foundation of the Kansas economy.

What is his legacy? Whole milk?

Should we next expect Marshall to do pull-ups with RFK Jr. and Kid Rock?

Performance over substance in a time of crisis is not what Kansans need.

Kansas deserves better than a Senator who waits for talking points before forming an opinion. Kansas deserves better than someone whose primary skill is cheering on power.

The best chance to defeat Roger Marshall is Sandy Spidel Neumann.

The reelection of Roger Marshall would ill serve Kansas and our nation.