Latest: Adam Hamilton Prays for Trump and Rival on Final Day of Kansas Senate Campaign

On his knees, before the coffee shop opened its doors to the morning crowd, Adam Hamilton prayed for the president. That is how the Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Democrat running for the United States Senate in Kansas, told reporters he started Monday, 2 November 2026, the day before voters went to the polls.

He said he had also prayed for Roger Marshall, the Republican incumbent he hopes to replace, and he added, with a smile, that he wanted to bless Marshall with retirement in Florida.

Hamilton pastors the Church of the Resurrection, which Religion News Service describes as the largest Methodist church in the United States. He has led that congregation for three decades, according to the same report.

When he launched his Senate campaign in April 2026, Religion News Service reports, he was considered a long shot. By the final day of campaigning, the service reports, he narrowly led Marshall in the polls.

This article was written before any result was known. It reports what Hamilton said and did on his last full day on the trail, and it makes no claim about who won. Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1932, Religion News Service reports, and the Christian Post reports that Hamilton is seeking a seat his party has not won since that year.

Adam Hamilton Leading From the Middle Tour Wichita Coffee Shop

For the past week before Election Day, Hamilton travelled Kansas on what he called the “Leading from the Middle” tour, Religion News Service reports. On Monday morning he stopped at Coffee Daze, a coffee shop near downtown Wichita, where he shook hands with patrons, sat at a table with them, and began every conversation with the same question. “Tell me your story,” he asked each person, according to the report.

Sue Corriston, a retired educator, told Hamilton she had already voted for him, Religion News Service reports. She described his approach as a breath of fresh air. “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, as quoted by Religion News Service.

Corriston, who is Catholic, told Religion News Service she was hopeful about Hamilton’s chances. “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.” Her words were her own hope, not a result, and no vote count existed when this article was written.

Ken Young, 62, stopped by before heading to work, Religion News Service reports. Young, a long-time independent who recently registered as a Democrat, said he knew Hamilton mostly as a pastor.

For years, Young said, he attended a Methodist church in Wichita where Hamilton’s lessons were used in Sunday school classes. “I think it’s going to be close,” Young said. “I hope that he wins, but it’s Kansas — and it hasn’t been blue in forever.”

Hamilton Prayed for Trump After Salina Rally Criticism

During a meeting with reporters, Hamilton was asked about President Donald Trump, who had criticised him during a rally for Marshall on Sunday in Salina, Kansas, Religion News Service reports. Hamilton took the president’s attention as a badge of honour, the report says. “He’s come here desperately trying to save my opponent, Roger Marshall,” Hamilton said, adding that he believed Trump’s efforts would likely be in vain.

Hamilton’s prayer for Marshall carried the same shape, Religion News Service reports. He said he had been praying for God’s blessing on his opponent, and then added the Florida line with a smile.

Church of the Resurrection Pastor Adam Hamilton Kansas Senate Race

The Christian Post reports that Hamilton, 61, built the Church of the Resurrection from a few members meeting in a funeral home chapel in 1990 into a congregation of 25,000 members with nine seperate locations across the Kansas City area. The same report describes it as the largest United Methodist church in the United States.

Hamilton has written more than 30 books, the Christian Post reports, and preached at the National Prayer Service at Washington National Cathedral after President Barack Obama’s second inauguration in 2013.

About ten hours after the coffee shop visit, Hamilton was still campaigning, Religion News Service reports. He spoke at a get-out-the-vote rally at Chicken N Pickle, not far from the Church of the Resurrection.

“I look around here, and I keep thinking there’s no place like home,” he said as supporters cheered and waved signs, according to the report. At that rally he asked supporters to text everyone on their contact list and remind them to vote, and he appealed for volunteers to knock on doors.

Readers can follow the background to this campaign in Supreme Court Hearing Today St Mary Catholic Parish v Roy: Catholic Preschools and Colorado Preschool Funding and in Today: Supreme Court to Hear St Mary Catholic Parish v Roy Colorado Preschool Case November 3 2026. Faith on the ballot in other races is covered in Texas Black Out Sunday: 2,000 Churches Mobilise Black Voters for Midterms and in Latest: Vatican Confirms Pope Leo XIV Voted by Mail in US Midterm Elections.

When the polls closed, Hamilton’s coffee-shop question was still hanging in the air: tell me your story. Whether Kansas heard a pastor, a candidate, or both at once is a question the votes will answer.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.