Can this pastor flip a Senate seat in deep red Kansas? (with Adam Hamilton)

Adam Hamilton (0:00)

Presented by AHIP.

SPEAKER_2 (0:02)

Health plans work every day to shield Americans from high and rising costs by negotiating lower prices from providers and drug makers and protecting consumers against unexpected medical bills. Learn more at ahip.org.

Adam Hamilton (0:15)

You know, this idea of being woke, I don't know what they mean by that, but I do know the idea of being awakened, like not being in slumber, but being awakened to truth, to kindness, to compassion. We're supposed to do that.

Dasha Burns (0:32)

Hello, hello, and welcome to The Conversation. I'm Dasha Burns, and every week on this show, I sit down with some of the most compelling and sometimes unexpected power players in Washington and beyond. This week, I sat down with Reverend Adam Hamilton. I'm outside of his Olathe field office right now. He is a Democrat running for Senate in Kansas.

Now, Kansas isn't usually in play for Democrats. In fact, if Hamilton wins, it would be the first time that Kansas sent a Democrat to the Senate since 1932

Adam Hamilton (1:03)

I've described myself as an independent-minded Democrat. I'm standing in the center, and it's the extremes that seem to be trying to pull us apart. But I think there's far more of us who stand in the center saying, look, we've got to work together, Republicans and Democrats, independents, we can and should. We're called to care for each other. We're called to work together.

Dasha Burns (1:21)

But since launching his campaign, Hamilton has been setting records. He announced $1 million in fundraising in just his first week. That number rose to nearly 3.7 million in his first quarter, and the polls show him neck and neck in this race with his opponent, Republican incumbent Senator Roger Marshall.

So what is resonating with Kansans? Well, before Hamilton's foray into politics, he was the founding pastor of Church of the Resurrection in the suburbs of Kansas City. It's the largest United Methodist Church in the country.

Adam Hamilton (1:51)

Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, but only what is useful for building up as there is need, that your words may give grace to those who hear. Can you imagine how politics would look differently if we all practice that?

Dasha Burns (2:07)

He talked extensively about the role faith plays in the campaign, the state of the race, and where he sees himself fitting in with the Democratic Party. And folks, we're about one month out from election day. If you've been enjoying our midterm series, please subscribe. And we've got a new show in the Politico podcast family. Make sure you check out the launch of Decoded on October 5th. It'll be a daily brief on the people, power moves, policy battles and market shifts defining this era in global technology. Catch it wherever you get your podcasts. And now, here's my conversation with Adam Hamilton.

Pastor Adam Hamilton, thank you so much for joining The Conversation.

Adam Hamilton (2:47)

Dasha, I'm so pleased to be with you. Thank you.

Dasha Burns (2:50)

Love it here in Kansas. Great to be back. I've listened to a lot of interviews with you, and everyone starts the interview with a version of this question, so apologies for the lack of originality. But I am going to ask, it's been a very long time, not since 1932 since Kansas sent a Democrat to the US Senate.

But something different seems to be going on right now. What is happening here?

Adam Hamilton (3:15)

Well, first of all, statistically, after 94 years, you'd think it's time for a Democrat to be elected.

But the truth is, what's going on is people are very frustrated, and we have a very irregular.

What's happening in Washington, DC? It's not normal.

It's not decent, it's not normal. People feel it.

I describe it as death by a thousand cuts. There are so many small things that happen. They'll leave people feeling frustrated, feeling scared, feeling disappointed. But the bigger issues are, I mean, the kitchen table issues. So right now we have a war in Iran that nobody wanted, nobody was asking for, and they're not sure exactly why we're there. What they do know is that they thought it was going to end after a month, and here we are seven months in. And Kansans have paid so far this year, $700 million more for fuel than they did a year ago.

Farmers, it's more than that. So farmers are paying record prices every week. It seems like there's a new record for diesel fuel. And if you're a farmer, that's the difference between whether your farm makes it or doesn't make it. This is true with transportation. I mean, across the board, Kansans are paying $100 a month more, and farmers more than that, for fuel prices. So, you know, that's the starting point, is people are saying, wait a minute, we didn't think we were going to get into foreign wars, and now we're in one, and now we're paying these prices for a war that we're not really sure we're supposed to be in, and we're not sure how we get out of it. Seems like things are worse rather than better. Add to that the hidden tariff tax. So the tariff tax, I mean, what we're paying more for items has gone up. It's $150 a month. Some people say $200 a month. That we're paying more for items than we did a year ago because of decisions made in Washington that are erratic. You know, at 2 in the morning, the president might have an idea that we need to announce a new tariff against Canada. And there's a place for tariffs. It's just not the way it's being practiced in Washington, DC. People are paying the price for that. So I was in Wichita a week ago on Sunday afternoon, and a woman said to me, she is a single mom. She works in health care, and she has a son who is autistic and non-verbal. And she began describing how hard it was. She's working more hours than she's ever worked. She's trying to put food on the table when she has to drive to Kansas City to see her mom. It's a $100 trip to get here and back. And she's like, I can't do this. You know, this is just, I don't know how anybody does this. So folks are living paycheck to paycheck. In Kansas, they feel the weight of this. Then you add health insurance to it, and you find 63,000 Kansans who had health insurance a year ago, year and a half ago, don't have it. We're a small state. We have 3 million people. This is one out of every 50 people who had to give up health insurance because the subsidies went away and the price went up so much, or they lost it related to Medicaid cuts in the one big beautiful bill. People are very frustrated, and that's just the kitchen table things. There's a lot more I want to talk about.