Trump Takes the Midterm Fight to Wichita as Kansas Senate Race Tightens
President Donald Trump is heading to Wichita on Monday for a campaign rally in support of Republican Senator Roger Marshall, betting that his personal presence can rescue a Senate race in a state Republicans were never supposed to lose. According to Kansas public radio reporting, the event at Heartland Credit Union Arena in Park City opens its doors at 2:30 p.m., with the president expected to speak around 6 p.m.
The stakes are unusual for Kansas. Trump won the state by about 16 points in 2024, and no Democrat has won a Kansas Senate race since 1932. Yet the Cook Political Report now rates the contest between Marshall and Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton, a Methodist pastor, a toss-up, with private polling from both parties deadlocked.
Record spending in a red state race
The money tells the story of Republican anxiety. The Senate Leadership Fund, the main GOP super PAC, has reserved nearly 8.2 million dollars in advertising for Marshall, according to AdImpact data, and has pulled back spending in North Carolina amid weak polling there. Marshall’s campaign has reserved another 2.3 million dollars of its own, against about 590,000 dollars reserved by Hamilton.
Marshall’s campaign has also faced headwinds from a New York Times report on his former medical practice suing more than 700 former patients over unpaid bills. Trump defended the senator on Truth Social, writing that he had been given a “bum rap” because he was required by law to request money owed from patients.
A rally under dark national clouds
The trip comes as Trump faces the worst polling of his presidency. A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Sunday puts his approval at 33 percent, a record low, with Democrats leading the House generic ballot by eight points. Trump has pledged 5,000 dollar “dividend” payments to every adult if Republicans keep Congress, a promise 71 percent of Americans doubt, according to the poll.
Protesters plan a “No Kings” demonstration in downtown Wichita ahead of the rally. The event is one stop in a midterm campaign blitz across roughly ten states, and with election betting markets now coming to television, every stop will be measured against the odds. Whether a presidential rally can steady a race that polls say is a coin flip is the question Kansas answers first, and the national economic mood may matter more than anything said on stage.
