Page A4From§Eachthe matinee edition — 27 September 2026
As it ran on the front
On August 31st, three Democratic congressional candidates sat on CBS's "The Takeout" and argued, on camera, about what their party should run on. The House gave its answer the next morning: a nonbinding resolution condemning socialism passed 220 to 192, eight Democrats voting yes, two not voting at all. That is the theory that says distance yourself from the word Republicans picked and hope it sticks to a colleague instead.
Kansas is testing the opposite theory, and the state's own Republicans are now the ones describing what it looks like when it works. Adam Hamilton, a Methodist minister, is challenging Sen. Roger Marshall by asking Kansans directly whether Jesus was woke — running toward the word, not away from it, in a state that has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since the 1930s. On September 16th, former Republican Gov. Bill Graves crossed over and endorsed him, saying it was "time Kansas does something different." A day later, in Texas, the same bet was being placed from a different angle: Rep. James Talarico's campaign against Attorney General Ken Paxton turned Christianity itself into the dividing line over what The Hill called the state's "political DNA."…
…(cont) On September 18th, a poll gave the Kansas theory a number: Hamilton 45, Marshall 43, inside a state whose 94-year Republican Senate streak had, until that week, been the entire case for why Marshall's seat was never in play. On September 27th, the streak stopped being the argument and became the thing Republicans were explaining.
Look at the order. A defection came first. A number came second. The fear came last, and only after both — which means the fear is not a prediction, it's an update, filed once the first two facts left no honest way to keep calling the seat safe.
Ninety-four years was never a law of physics. It was a streak. Streaks end, and this one now has a governor's endorsement and a two-point lead standing where the confidence used to be.
“A Republican governor doesn't cross the aisle for laughs, and a two-point Kansas lead isn't luck — that's just math the party can't spin away. Ninety-four years of "safe seat" talk was there to scare off challengers before they even filed; now the party's own people are telling reporters the scare tactic stopped working. That seat sat there as furniture because nobody called the bluff — a Methodist minister just did.”
“One endorsement from a former governor doesn't decide a Senate race, and a two-point poll is inside the margin — this happens every cycle, nothing to see here. "Perfect storm" is just how you tell a reporter you're managing expectations, it's not an admission that the seat's actually in — okay, it kind of is, isn't it. Forget I said that.”
Earlier in this story
The receipts
Democrats are running an average of 11.5 points ahead of their 2024 baseline across 2026 special elections MultiState Elections, 2026 special-election tracking
Democrat leads Marshall in tight Kansas Senate race: PollDemocrat Adam Hamilton narrowly leads Republican Gov. Roger Marshall in a tight race for Senate in red Kansas, according to new polling. A new The Hill/Emerson College Polling survey found Hamilton ahead by 2 percentage points, with 45 percent to Marshall’s 43 percent.
It's been nearly a century since Kansas voters sent a Democrat to the Senate. But Adam Hamilton, a prominent pastor, is looking to make that jump as Republicans grow more and more unsettled about incumbent GOP Sen. Roger Marshall’s chances in the heartland.
· Kansas's former GOP governor backs Democrat over Marshall for Senate from the morgue, 16 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.