Adam Hamilton is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat in Kansas, having won the state's 11-candidate August 4, 2026 primary with just under 35% of the vote. He will face Republican incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall in the November 3 general election; the nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted the race from "Solid Republican" to "Likely Republican" following his primary win. A senior pastor making his first run for elected office, Hamilton has never before sought public office.
A fifth-generation Kansan whose family settled in Dickinson County 147 years ago, Hamilton grew up in the Kansas City area and married his high school sweetheart, LaVon, the week after graduation; they celebrated their 44th wedding anniversary in 2026 and have two daughters and a granddaughter. He earned a bachelor's degree in pastoral ministry from Oral Roberts University and a Master of Divinity from the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University.
In 1990, at 25, Hamilton and his wife started a church in the Kansas City area with four people meeting in a borrowed space; it grew into the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, the largest United Methodist congregation in the country, with roughly 25,000 weekly attendees across nine locations. Under his leadership the congregation became the Kansas City area's largest source of donated food after the regional food bank, funded a mobile dental clinic serving thousands of children each year, and invested millions of dollars in the area's lowest-income elementary schools. He preached at the National Prayer Service during the 2013 presidential inauguration, was appointed by President Obama to a federal faith-based advisory council, and has authored more than 30 books.