WICHITA, Kan. (RNS) — On Monday (Nov. 2), megachurch pastor and U.S. Senate candidate the Rev. Adam Hamilton said he started the day praying for President Donald Trump.
Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate the Rev. Adam Hamilton speaks to supporters during a rally at Chicken N Pickle, Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, in Overland Park, Kan. (RNS photo/Kit Doyle)
“This morning on my knees, I was praying for the president today,” Hamilton, a Democrat, told reporters at the Coffee Daze coffee shop near downtown Wichita, right after a morning meet and greet with supporters. “Just praying, God, I pray for you to help this man to be who he’s supposed to be, to be his best version of himself. “
Hamilton, who pastors the largest Methodist church in the U.S., said he’d also been praying for God’s blessing on Roger Marshall, his opponent in the race to represent Kansas in the U.S. Senate, adding with a smile, “I do want to bless him with retirement in Florida.”
Considered a long shot when he launched his campaign in April, Hamilton now narrowly leads Marshall in the polls. For the past week, Hamilton has traveled the state on what he has called the “Leading from the Middle” tour. At Coffee Daze, he shook hands with patrons, sat at a table with them and started every conversation with the same question: “Tell me your story.”
Sue Corriston, a retired educator, told Hamilton she’d already voted for him. His approach to the campaign was a breath of fresh air, she said. “It is so nice to have somebody around that doesn’t run away from questions from either side, that wants to listen, that wants to engage and speaks in complete sentences without calling names,” she said.
Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate the Rev. Adam Hamilton, right, visits with customers early Monday, Nov. 2, 2026, at Coffee Daze coffee shop in Wichita, Kan. (RNS photo/Bob Smietana)
Corriston, who is Catholic, said she’s hopeful about Hamilton’s chances in the election.
“I think he’s going to win,” she said. “I really think he’s going to win because people are tired of being ignored and locked out.”
Ken Young, who is 62, stopped by to see Hamilton before heading off to work. A long-time independent, he recently registered as a Democrat. When asked why, he just shook his head at the state of the world.
Young said he knew Hamilton mostly as a pastor. For years, he attended a Methodist church in Wichita where they used Hamilton’s lessons during Sunday school classes. He’s hopeful that if elected, Hamilton would do a good job.
“I think it’s going to be close,” he said. “I hope that he wins, but it’s Kansas — and it hasn’t been blue in forever.”
Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932.
During a meeting with reporters, Hamilton was asked about Trump, who’d criticized him during a rally for Marshall on Sunday in Salina, Kansas. Hamilton took it as a badge of honor that the president had spent so much time campaigning in Kansas.
“He’s come here desperately trying to save my opponent, Roger Marshall,” said Hamilton, adding that Trump’s efforts would likely be in vain.
Supporters cheer as Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate the Rev. Adam Hamilton steps up to the podium during a rally Monday evening, Nov. 2, 2026, in Overland Park, Kan. (RNS photo/Kit Doyle)
About 10 hours later, Hamilton was still on the campaign trail — this time at the Chicken N Pickle not far from the Church of the Resurrection, the congregation he’s led for three decades.
“I look around here, and I keep thinking there’s no place like home,” he said as supporters cheered him and waved signs.
During that last get-out-the-vote rally, Hamilton asked supporters to text everyone on their contact list and remind them to vote and gave a last appeal for volunteers to knock on doors. He also gave an abbreviated version of his stump speech, saying that the decisions made in Washington — like the war with Iran, tariffs and the immigration crackdown — have hurt people in Kansas and around the country.
That’s just not right, he said. And if elected, he promised to do better. He also cited a series of Christian Bible passages, including the Sermon on the Mount, the parable of the sheep and the goats — with its reminder to care for the least of these — and Micah 6:8, about doing justice and walking humbly with God.
If elected, he hopes to find a way to work with both Republicans and Democrats to make the country a better place. That is something Hamilton, whose church attracts people with a variety of political views, said has been forgotten in these polarized times.
“There is one team in America. Team USA. And we are here together.”
