Democratic PAC Targets Tossup Kansas Senate Race With $5 Million

Democrats announced a $5 million ad buy in Kansas, typically a solidly conservative state that has unexpectedly and rapidly become a Senate battleground ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

The commitment follows national Republicans’ decision last week to pour more than $10 million into the race between incumbent GOP Senator Roger Marshall and pastor Adam Hamilton, a Democrat.

Read more: GOP Risks First Senate Loss in 94 Years in Reliably Red Kansas

Kansas hasn’t elected a Democrat to a US Senate set since 1932.

Total advertising spending in the race is approaching $50 million with the buys Friday from Democrats’ Senate Majority political action committee, according to AdImpact data.

The funding pales in comparison to states like Ohio and Texas, where the parties have spent hundreds of millions on fiercely contested Senate races. But it’s nonetheless a significant investment in a smaller state that Republicans hadn’t expected to be competitive.

The agriculture-heavy state, now rated a tossup by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, has been buffeted by record diesel prices sparked largely by the Iran war and trade wars that have hit the states’ farmers and consumers.

Senate Majority PAC’s first ad targets Marshall for voting against legislation directing the attorney general to release the government’s files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Congress later passed a law requiring the Epstein files to be released.

Democrats also are targeting Marshall, who practiced for many years as an obstetrician-gynecologist, for a New York Times report that he filed lawsuits against 700 of his patients, 81 of whom were later arrested for failing to appear in court.

“The gap is closing in Kansas, and we are committed to ensuring families understand Marshall’s real record of making health care and basic goods more expensive for working Kansans,” said Senate Majority PAC spokesperson Lauren French.

The Republican Senate Leadership Fund has been running ads portraying Hamilton, a pastor of the largest United Methodist church in the United States, as a fake moderate out of touch with the state.

Marshall has also attacked Hamilton for a decades-old case of a church camp counselor accused of molesting kids. Hamilton’s campaign countered that he helped get the man convicted.

Hamilton, meanwhile, has been buoyed by a series of crossover endorsements from Republicans, including two former Republican governors vouching for him as someone who will govern from the middle. He’s also been a strong fundraiser, with AdImpact showing his campaign with more than $10 million in ad spending, about double Marshall’s.