One of the most surprising trends in the midterm election cycle has been Republican vulnerability in states and districts once considered safely red that have turned into toss-ups due to the unpopularity of President Donald Trump. On Tuesday, a new report revealed that the GOP should be starkly worried about its Senate race in one such state, Kansas, where the Republican senatorial candidate initially failed to meet the criteria for participating in debates for a surprising reason.
“Wow,” posted Kansas political strategist Tyson Brody. “The Kansas City Star confirms that less than 25 percent of Roger Marshall’s campaign fundraising comes from Kansas, failing the participation criteria for a Nexstar debate.”
This has profound implications for the campaign of Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS), who polls show is slightly trailing his Democratic opponent, pastor Adam Hamilton. The two had previously shared the same stage during what the Star describes as “the boisterous Kansas State Fair forums earlier this month, where Marshall faced down a hostile crowd that at one point cut him off mid-answer with chants of ‘shame on you.’” Since then, it has been questioned whether another debate would happen in light of Marshall’s extraordinarily high out-of-state funding. The Senator’s lack of local donations suggests dwindling support within the state while outside financial backers attempt to influence the election. Ultimately, it was decided that Marshall could participate in the debate after the organizers determined there was “significant public interest served by the inclusion of the incumbent United States Senator.”
“In light of Nexstar graciously making a public interest exception to allow incumbent Senator Roger Marshall to qualify for the debate, Adam Hamilton will plan on joining the FOX4 debate — despite Senator Marshall failing to meet the in-state fundraising criteria and instead raising all his money from corporate PACs,” said a statement from Hamilton’s campaign. And according to one of his spokespersons, “After clearly winning the State Fair debate, Adam looks forward to debating Sen. Marshall again.”
This news out of Kansas comes as the GOP struggles to fight off what Republicans fear will be a massive blue wave in November. While the state currently has a Democratic governor, it hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932. If Marshall loses, it will break the longest current single-party Senate streak held by any state in the U.S. Republicans recently told the Hill that GOP internal polls have the party on red alert over the possibility of losing Kansas, where voters in general are angry about the war with Iran, and farmers in particular are outraged over skyrocketing diesel prices and Trump’s decision to import beef. As one Senator told the Hill anonymously, “It’s a tough environment,” and things are looking “grim” for Republicans.