What's Nice In Kansas? How About A Democratic Senate Nominee With Big Mr. Rogers Vibes?
Adam Hamilton is a pastor, but isn't claiming God told him to run. Good!
Despite its bizarre rightwing bent since Jeff Bezos decided to cozy up to Donald Trump, the Washington Post still sometimes has its moments, like this Friday Kathleen Parker column (gift link) with the tantalizing headline “Why Kansas might elect its first Democratic senator in nearly 100 years.” What’s that? A Democrat has a shot of winning a US Senate seat in ruby-slipper-red Kansas?
Toto, I don’t think we’re blessing the rains down in Africa anymore.
OK, it’s really not that big a surprise, considering that in 2018 Kansans also elected Gov. Laura Kelly (D) after years of near-bankruptcy and enshittified schools under the austerity policies of Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and the R-dominated Lege. Kansans also said Hell No to repeated Republican attempts to ban abortion and weaken democracy. So there’s that!
The contender who impressed Parker so much is Rev. Adam Hamilton, 62, the pastor of the largest Methodist congregation in the US, who won a crowded August 4 Democratic primary with a little less than 35 percent of the vote, and is about as far from a fire-breathing holy roller — or for that matter an angry burn-it-down nihilist — as you can get. He won’t harangue you about the state of your soul, because he wants you to think about how the snotty mean-girl trolling that constitutes much of American politics is hurting our neighbors, the people Christians are supposed to love.
In his victory speech, Hamilton said, “I didn’t plan to run for office. I’ve spent my life as a pastor, and I try to care for people,” but he also made clear that we live in a society, and that our national charter promises to promote the general welfare of the people: “Sometimes we need the government to help as well. The role of Washington is sometimes going to do the things that we as communities cannot do.”
Gosh, we like this guy. Here’s the full speech:
Hamilton quickly got to the reason he’s running: America is in trouble, and “We just no longer even notice how abnormal things are in Washington.” Lest you worry that he’s both-sidesing, it’s not hard to tell where he places the responsibility for the current nastiness:
“The America that we love is being torn apart, torn apart by politicians making their living off of keeping us angry and alienated and afraid. Our politics are broken and that has to change.
“Recently I was in Greensburg, Kansas, and a woman, a kind woman, came to me and she said, ‘Look, I feel angry and frustrated when I think of people of the other political party and I don’t want to feel that way. These are some of my neighbors, my family and friends, but I don’t want to feel this way towards other people. I want a senator who’s not going to divide us further, but try to bring us together.’
“But she also said this, ‘I also hope for a senator who will stand up for what’s right and good and true.’”
Yr. Dok Zoom is a recovering Catholic and an atheist, and I say Amen to that.
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Hamilton told the Post’s Parker that Donald Trump’s policies were “an assault on the values I preached and taught for 35 years,” adding that he often found himself saying while watching the news, “That’s not okay with me. Somebody needs to do something.”
Before long, it became clear to Hamilton that it might as well be him, especially after his wife LaVon, initially opposed to his getting into politics, changed her mind. And unlike so many rightwingers who claim that God personally told them they had to run, Hamilton is much more humble, telling Parker, “When it comes to discerning God’s will, you’re never quite sure. I was 87.2 percent sure I was supposed to do this.”
Hamilton did talk a bit in his primary victory speech about how his faith informs his politics, sharing an anecdote about a voter he says approached him after a campaign speech and told Hamilton “I’m a one-issue voter.” That issue, the man went on to say, was “I won't vote for anybody who doesn't believe that we are supposed to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.” (No, he didn’t have video, so what?)
So here’s Adam Hamilton’s version of a political Gospel:
“Now, loving your neighbor includes making sure that kids don't go to bed hungry at night. Loving your neighbor [means making sure] the people who are living in your midst who are marginalized or made to feel small or belittled are not belittled and somebody stands up for them. Loving your neighbor means that you're making sure people don't have to choose between paying their house payment and making sure they can get healthcare.”
Hey, that sounds a lot like the Gospel of Tom Joad.
Hamilton is running against incumbent Trumpsucker Roger Marshall, who in red red Kansas has the numerical advantage with that R following his name. Marshall is a flat-earth 2020 election denier who voted with Trump 98.3 percent of the time during Great Leader’s first term, when Marshall was in the House. Back in 2017, Marshall offered his own take on Biblical Truth, claiming that Jesus would be fine with millions of people losing healthcare coverage because they’re too lazy to even take care of their own health, the slobs.
Marshall also thinks Robert F. Brainworms Jr. is a great secretary of Health and Human Services, because during COVID, Americans lost trust in the CDC because it “lied” (it did not) and now RFK Jr. is finally telling the “truth” about public health (he is not). Last fall, Marshall insisted that the “No Kings” protests were full of “professional protesters” paid by George Soros, and that they would surely riot and need to be put down by the National Guard.
So yeah, Marshall’s a pretty bog standard MAGA turd, though Hamilton probably wouldn’t sink to Wonkette’s dirty talk. This is not to suggest he isn’t on Team Fight, though; Hamilton regularly argues that Marshall’s loyalty is to Donald Trump and big money, not to Kansas voters. In his speeches, he excoriates Marshall for supporting Trump’s Big Ugly Bill, leaving 10,000 Kansas kids without SNAP nutritional benefits and putting 28 rural Kansas hospitals in danger of closing.
Hamilton also calls Marshall out for refusing to hold town halls or to defend Kansans when Republican legislation hurts them. But he does it with a nod to how we all imagine ourselves debating some lunkhead we can’t actually talk to:
“I waited for Roger Marshall to speak up. I would have arguments with him in the shower. He wasn't in the shower with me, but I was having arguments with him, and I'm like, ‘Roger, speak up. You were not hired by the president to be his personal spokesperson. You were hired by the people of Kansas to speak up for them, to stand up for them, and that's your job.’”
While Kansans’ lives are made worse by policies Marshall voted for, the senator vacations in Florida, Hamilton says. “So here's what I think. If Senator Marshall wants to spend more time in Florida I think that's awesome. And I think that we should help him be able to do that by electing me.”
An August Public Policy Polling survey showed the two candidates nearly tied, with 46 percent of Kansans surveyed preferring Marshall and 45 percent for Hamilton. After the pollsters briefly presented some favorable information about Hamilton’s experience and positions, the numbers flipped a bit, to 45 percent saying they’d vote for Hamilton, and 44 percent for Marshall — although both results are pretty much a dead heat within the margin of error.
Marshall recently attacked Hamilton for suggesting in a 2020 sermon that people could eat less beef as a way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, lying that Hamilton had told the congregation to “repent from eating beef in a state like Kansas, where cattle is the major Ag driver,” and accusing Hamilton of being “too woke” for Kansas.
In reply, Hamilton said, “When did caring about your neighbor, being concerned for children, being concerned for the poor and vulnerable become woke? And I think if you're so far to the right on the political spectrum that being in the center and having compassion for people sounds “woke,” but that's not woke. These are Kansas values.”
That’s how you do it.
Again, Roger Marshall has the built-in advantages of being an incumbent Republican in a red state. But Hamilton has raised roughly six times as much campaign money than Marshall in the most recent quarter, bringing in nearly $3.7 million compared to Marshall's $611,000. Of course, Marshall is getting boatloads of advertising support from outside money groups.
Considering the polls and the growing interest in Hamilton, both the Cook Political Report and the the University of Virginia’s Sabato’s Crystal Ball have revised their forecasts for the Kansas Senate race, shifting from “solid R” and “safe R” respectively to “likely” Republican wins.
Adam Hamilton is pretty nifty, and his advocacy of decency and empathy are a refreshing contrast to Trumpian scorched-earth politicking. You might want to send him some money!
[WaPo (gift link) / Kansas City Star (via Yahoo News) / Adam Hamilton For Senate]
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Let me vouch for Adam Hamilton. He's real.
I'm a writer and editor by trade, and I've had the opportunity to do the initial edit on a number of Hamilton's books for the United Methodist Publishing House. (Hamilton is the top-selling author in Methodist devotional circles; his M.O. is to preach a sermon series on a particular topic, and then turn the sermons into book chapters.) So I've come to learn quite a bit about how he acts and thinks.
"The Gospel of Tom Joad" is an interesting and pretty apt way to put it. You would not hear him speak and think Hamilton is some "woke liberal" who only preaches the social gospel. But he also understands that the authentic gospel, as opposed to the Magangelical view of the world, says that the entire community, not just righteous or unrighteous individuals, will be judged on how it cares for the poor and marginalized and makes them full members of "the beloved community." In the Kansas City area, Hamilton's congregation, The Church of the Resurrection, is widely known for the massive amounts of assistance it provides to others without fanfare.
You might be tempted to draw conclusions based on the fact that Hamilton pastors a megachurch (over 20,000 members) whose flagship location is in an affluent white suburb in Leawood, Kansas. But he tells a telling story about the church's founding. His bishop, W. T. Handy, an African American pastor beloved in Methodist circles, took him 35 years ago to a point overlooking these fast-growing suburbs and told Hamilton he wanted him to start a church there. "Don't be fooled by all these rich houses," Hamilton recalls the bishop saying. "There is a lot of poverty out there."
It's fair to say that much of Hamilton's ministry has focused on curing the spiritual poverty among affluent white Christians and turning them into actual followers of Jesus' gospel.
Extra credit for the Toto line, Dok. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️