Democrat Adam Hamilton unseated Republican Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas with help from three western counties where Latino voters make up about half or more of the electorate, communities recently shaken by sweeping federal immigration raids.
Hamilton, who leads the largest United Methodist church in the country, will be the first Democrat Kansas has sent to the Senate since 1932. He beat Marshall on Nov. 3, roughly six months after entering the race in late April.
He carried Ford, Finney and Seward counties plus eight others. Latino voters account for 49% of registered voters in Ford, 48% in Finney and 60% in Seward, according to Ike Lab, a voting data site run by Wichita State University professors, while registered Democrats make up only 23% to 24% in each.
Those counties are home to Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal, where meatpacking jobs have drawn large Latino populations. The raids there kept children out of school, delayed start times at meatpacking plants and spread fear.
Republicans, Marshall among them, responded by pressing harder for immigration enforcement, and Marshall urged local and federal law enforcement to cooperate. Democrats condemned the raids' effects and campaigned in all three cities, with Hamilton saying something had gone very wrong.
In his victory speech, Hamilton said he backs immigration enforcement only when it serves its original purpose of stopping dangerous people. He recounted a woman telling him that parents stayed away from school pickup out of fear when ICE agents arrived in western Kansas.
Official turnout data is still pending, but early indications show Latino and Black voters statewide lifted Democratic vote totals.
The shift reached down the ballot. Attorney General Kris Kobach, who also ran on strict immigration enforcement, appeared to lose to Democrat Chris Mann, and Democrat Cindy Holscher led the governor's race in unofficial results; both contests are among three statewide races under audit. Mann won Finney and Seward counties, Holscher appeared to carry Seward, and a Democrat ousted Republican state Rep. Bob Lewis in Garden City.
Hamilton attributed his win to frustration with Washington, saying lifelong Republicans saw conduct there they considered cruel, immoral and corrupt, along with policies that hurt people in Kansas.
I think I got elected because Kansans were saying we’re tired of the bullies. We’re tired of the chaos
Adam Hamilton, U.S. senator-elect from Kansas
Schumer, Miller and priorities
Hamilton has said he will not support Chuck Schumer for majority leader. He said he meant no disrespect but wants leaders who can bring Republicans, Democrats, moderates and progressives together, and that it is time for fresh ideas.
Asked about President Trump naming Stephen Miller as chief of staff, Hamilton said Miller appears to be the author of many policies Democrats oppose, from immigration and tariffs to the war in Iran, and called the choice difficult and challenging.
On plans by Robert Garcia, the likely next chairman of the House Oversight Committee, to investigate the Trump family, Hamilton said he wants guardrails against corruption and is willing to hold people accountable. But he said he does not want to spend two years on trials, putting Social Security, health care, immigration and the national debt first.
