Fact Check: Marshall and Hamilton debate in race for Kansas seat in U.S. Senate

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Roger Marshall and Adam Hamilton debate in a tight race for a Kansas Senate seat.

The debate is expected to address economic growth, infrastructure, and healthcare.

The one-hour debate is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and this story will update.

Republican incumbent Roger Marshall and Democratic challenger the Rev. Adam Hamilton debated on live TV Wednesday night amid a tight race to fill the Kansas seat in the U.S. Senate.

The event touched on economic growth, infrastructure, and healthcare.

The debate came two days after President Donald Trump joined Marshall on stage at a rally in Sedgwick County and less than two weeks before the Nov. 3 election.

The Star fact-checked some of their claims during the debate as it was broadcast on FOX4 in Kansas City, moderated by Emmy-winning anchor John Holt.

Rural health care fund

Marshall argued the Rural Health Transformation Fund, a $50 billion initiative distributed across the states, was helping increase access to healthcare in Kansas.

The fund was created to help rural hospitals survive cuts to Medicaid in the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill.

Marshall said the fund provided Kansas with $220 million for rural health care.

Verdict: True but needs context

Kansas received $221 million during the first year of the program, which was distributed to 39 organizations across the state.

The investment was welcome for struggling Kansas hospitals, but the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health policy think-tank, estimated that the fund would mitigate but not fully offset the anticipated cuts to Medicaid spending in rural areas.

How many people lost health care

Hamilton criticized cuts to premium tax credits that subsidized insurance on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. He said those raises have forced thousands of people to abandon their health care coverage.

“It’s more than 36,000 people have lost health insurance in the state of Kansas. We think today, closer to 50,000 people when you take Medicaid,” Hamilton said. “When my opponent Roger Marshall, a doctor, voted to take away those health benefits from people, that’s not okay.”

Verdict: True

Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act shrunk by about 20% in Kansas by early 2026 when COVID-era subsidies for insurance expired. Democrats shut down the government for weeks during negotiations on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act seeking to retain the subsidies.

The average premium doubled for ACA marketplace plans, and many people that remained enrolled shifted to lower coverage plans.

Marshall responded to a question on how he would improve access to health care by saying the ACA needs a major reform.

“The Affordable Care Act wasn’t so affordable after all. Listen, it was written by big insurance companies and big hospitals, which are printing money, and that’s why they’re all campaigning against me,” Marshall said.

Marshall pointed to legislation he supported that would expand community health centers, behavioral health centers and medical cost transparency.

Prescription drug prices

While debating issues related to lowering the cost of healthcare, Marshall said drug prices are falling.

“Prescription drug prices are coming down again, much because of legislation I wrote or supported as well,” Marshall said. “So we’re doing it in so many ways.”

Verdict: True, but needs context

Drug prices have experienced their steepest annual decline since March 1963, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.

Still, long-term data shows prices are still high compared to the past. The Trump administration attributes the decline to the launch of TrumpRx, a prescription drug website launched by the government, and the “Most-Favored-Nation” drug pricing program, which directs federal negotiators to not pay significantly more than other peer nations.

Health care economists and policy analysts have also given credit to Medicare drug price negotiations passed in Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and more generic drug competition.

Food stamps

Hamilton accused Marshall of cutting SNAP benefits, the food assistance program commonly referred to as food stamps.

“I do want to remind him as he laments the SNAP benefits he’s managed to cut SNAP benefits for 1,000s of children across the state of Kansas,” Hamilton said.

Marshall rebuffed Hamilton, and said Kansans support work requirements for food stamps, and characterized the SNAP program as increasingly expensive and rife with fraud.

“The food stamp fraud error rate’s gone from like 5% to 15% in Kansas. Kansans don’t want fraud. On the other hand, there’s all these other food programs. Kids today, they get free breakfasts, reduced lunches, free dinners at school,” Marshall said.

Verdict: Needs context

Marshall supported the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that cut $186.7 billion from the program over ten years. The bill also forces states to cover a larger share of the administrative costs tied to error rates.

Marshall misstated the error rate as the “fraud error rate,” and said it raised to as much as 15%. The error ate in Kansas peaked at 12%.

About 5.2 million Americans have dropped out of the program since the bill took effect.

Tariffs and manufacturing

Marshall said Trump’s use of tariffs have led to a “manufacturing renaissance,” and are bringing more jobs back to America.

“The tariffs are working. I’m just tired of seeing jobs leave America. Now China will be happy with my opponent because he doesn’t care about fighting for these jobs,” Marshall said.

Verdict: False

Manufacturing jobs has declined overall during Trump’s second term as input costs for parts and materials rose. The impact varies by sector, and some like metal products and transportation equipment has seen modest gains.

Hamilton’s social progressivism splintered his church

After Hamilton argued he would “lead from the middle” as an independently-minded Democrat, Marshall claimed Hamilton’s progressive politics led to many churches leaving his denomination. “Is that what you call leading from the middle when you split the Methodist Church?” Marshall said.

Verdict: Needs context

In 2022 the Global Methodist Church split from the United Methodist Church over opposition to the UMC’s recognition of same-sex marriages and the ordination of non-celibate gay clergy. The tension between conservative and progressive Methodists had been simmering for years.

In 2020, Hamilton supported eliminating the UMC’s prohibitions against ordaining LGBTQ pastors and performing same-sex marriages. Hamilton’s church, the Church of the Resurrection, was at the forefront of making the Methodist church more inclusive of LGBTQ congregants, but many churches also supported the change.

The church has lost about a quarter of its churches in the schism.

Marshall on Iran War raising costs

Marshall blamed high diesel costs primarily on Ukraine, a lack of new refineries and the Green New Deal. He made the claim after Hamilton called for an end to the Iran War to bring down diesel costs.

“The real problem with the cost of diesel, in particular, is number one is the Ukraine war, and because of that, diesel production has gone down. But beyond that, why are we dependent upon diesel imports? It’s because of the Green New Deal policy that my opponent supports,” Marshall said.

Fact check: Needs context

Diesel prices shot up during the U.S.-Israeli War in Iran, and has remained high. The attacks on Russian refineries have contributed to high costs, as well as the high cost of refining crude oils.

But the war in Iran, and the restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz, have largely contributed to the price of diesel.

Hamilton church camp sex abuse

Marshall has said Hamilton mishandled an incident where a camp counselor inappropriately touched two minor campers at a summer camp hosted by his church. The same issue was raised in the primary by state Sen. Patrick Schmidt, a Topeka Democrat, who was competing with Hamilton for the nomination.

Hamilton responded to the allegations at the debate, echoing comments he made to CNN during the weekend that he would have handled the situation differently in hindsight.

“The reality is that we did change our policy after that,” Hamilton said. “We made sure that the police found out later. They investigated. They found the same thing. It was inconclusive. There was uncertainty. And as a result of that, they refused to press charges as well. I will tell you that ultimately, we helped get this man put behind bars, and the policies that we developed are used by 10,000 churches across America.”

Verdict: Needs context

At a 2005 summer camp hosted by Hamilton’s church, volunteer counselor Scott Preston Moore entered campers sleeping quarters at night and inappropriately touched two teenage boys. The boys recounted their experiences to camp counselors, who were dismissive of their complaints according to court records reviewed by The Star.

The court documents do not name Hamilton as being directly involved in the initial report to camp leaders. The church conducted an internal investigation about the abuse in 2005, but was “unable to conclusively identify the perpetrator,” according to a court filing.

The church did not report the incident to law enforcement or social services in 2005. The next year Moore returned and was accused of entering campers rooms at night, but didn’t engage in any further sexual abuse.

After learning Moore entered campers’ rooms, church officials alerted the Linn County Sheriff’s Office about the incident and the allegations from the year before. Linn County prosecutors declined to press charges, but the church revoked Moore’s ability to work with children, youth and vulnerable adults.

Hamilton told CNN that he would have “absolutely” handled it differently in hindsight but that it “was not our policy at the time.”

Moore was accused of a number of sex crimes involving children throughout the 2000s and 2010s, and was ultimately convicted in 2013 of inappropriately touching a 16-year-old boy. Moore died in 2015.

Roger Marshall’s medical bills

Marshall has faced scrutiny after The New York Times revealed that he sued hundreds of former patients over unpaid medical bills.

When working as a rural OB-GYN, Marshall sued over 700 patients, leading to 81 arrests when patients missed court dates and failed to repay their bills. Marshall has defended his billing process as standard medical practice, and claims he wrote off millions in medical debt.

Marshall called the term misleading, and that the patients were arrested because they missed court dates.

“Nothing can be further from the truth. Look, the Kansas Bill of Rights clearly says you cannot be arrested or thrown in jail because of indebtedness. So this particular patient actually had legal issues in three different counties. She had missed 16 court dates, and I’m sorry about that. We did everything possible to keep them from going to collections,” Marshall said.

Hamilton has attacked Marshall on his medical bills in campaign ads and on social media.

Verdict: Needs context

Marshall’s interest rate of 18% is uniquely high for a medical provider. A Kansas City Star analysis showed that Marshall was the only medical provider to use that high of a rate after reviewing hundreds of lawsuits.

President Donald Trump, defending Marshall, falsely claimed that Marshall would be in legal jeopardy for failing to collect unpaid medical bills.

This story was originally published October 21, 2026 at 7:45 PM with the headline “Fact Check: Marshall and Hamilton debate in race for Kansas seat in U.S. Senate.”