Hamilton's 2020 sermon becomes a flashpoint in the final days of the Kansas Senate race

In the last two weeks of Kansas's U.S. Senate race, a 2020 sermon by Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton has become a central talking point. At an Oct. 19 rally in Park City, President Donald Trump told the crowd that Hamilton "wants you to repent for being born white." Sen. Roger Marshall, the Republican incumbent, says Hamilton is "too woke for Kansas." Hamilton's campaign says those claims twist his words. Kansans vote on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

The sermon is public, and this report quotes it at length so readers can compare it with what each side says it means. The dispute also shows how a campaign can turn on race, identity and diversity. Republicans describe their message as a defense of shared values. Hamilton's campaign describes the attacks as a misrepresentation of his words.

What Hamilton said in 2020

Hamilton is the founding pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, a United Methodist congregation in the Kansas City area. In June 2020, days after George Floyd was killed, he gave a sermon titled "Jesus, Protests and Repentance." The sermon is on the church's YouTube page. The Kansas City Star and Fox News have both quoted from it.

The Star reports that Hamilton showed photos and videos of himself at a Black Lives Matter rally in Kansas City. He said every great reform movement started with someone speaking up and protesting. He said the protesters' anger was justified.

Then he turned to his own view. Here are the words in the passage that both outlets quote:

"I have certain benefits by virtue of being educated, white and male, right? And we don't like to hear that. Especially white folks don't like to hear that."

Almost a minute later, after he said he does not share the fear of police traffic stops that Black people had confided to him, he said:

"I have to listen and understand and finally be able to see the brokenness in myself, my indifference. Before I can do anything to help anyone else, I have to have a conversion. I have to repent."

The Star adds that in the same sermon Hamilton spoke against looting and violence. He said "all lives matter," and he said "the problem is right now it doesn't seem like Black lives matter to a lot of people."

Fox News describes the sermon differently from the Star. Its reporter writes that Hamilton "called on his congregation at the Church of the Resurrection to recognize their White privilege and repent." Fox also quotes his remark that "of course all lives matter." The two outlets quote the same lines. They differ on how to summarize them: Fox as a call for the congregation to repent, the Star as a reflection on his own blind spots.

How the line reached the campaign

In August, just days after Hamilton won the Democratic primary, a new Massachusetts-based super PAC called Main Street Fund released a 30-second ad calling him "way too woke for Kansas." The Star reports the ad stitched together pieces of two 2020 sermons, one on race and one on climate change. It showed the words "By virtue of being white . . . I have to repent."

The Star says the on-screen text used ellipses to show that words were cut. Hamilton's campaign said the ad took him out of context. His spokesman, Tyson Brody, called it "as dishonest as Roger Marshall's claim to live in Kansas." The Star also reported it found no evidence that the church has hosted a drag queen story time, which the ad said Hamilton paid for with church funds. Marshall's campaign declined to comment for the Star's article, and the super PAC's treasurer did not respond to the paper's requests.

On Oct. 15, Fox News published a report on the sermon. Brody responded to Fox: "Once again, he's attacking Adam for something Roger said himself. Roger's own pastor called Adam 'middle of the road.'" He added that "Kansans are tired of high gas and grocery prices and ready for a senator who won't divide us by race, religion, income, or ability to pay a medical bill at 18% interest." Fox noted that Marshall condemned Floyd's killing in 2020 and called for police reforms.

The rally

Four days later, Trump held a rally at the Heartland Credit Union Arena in Park City. The Guardian reports that he called Hamilton a "radical left lunatic" and a "phoney who's pretending to be a moderate." It also reports that Trump said Hamilton "openly mocks Jesus" and believes America is systemically racist. Then came the line: "He wants you to repent for being born white."

The Kansas Reflector reported that Trump called Hamilton a "bad person" and a "disgrace," and spent his first 20 minutes with few mentions of Kansas. KWCH reported that Trump also called Hamilton and Democratic governor nominee Cindy Holscher "radical lunatics." The station said he accused them of being communists.

Marshall spoke before Trump. The Guardian quotes him: "This is a guy that participates in protests against police. He supports drag shows. He tells us to [apologize] for the [color] of our skin. And in a state with more cattle than people, he tells you to stop eating beef." The Reflector quotes him calling Hamilton "the most radical liberal Democrat to ever make it through a Senate primary in the history of Kansas."

Other attacks at and before the rally fell outside this report's scope. The Kansas Reflector reported that the National Republican Senatorial Committee before the visit, and Trump and Marshall at the rally, raised abuse allegations involving a church volunteer in 2005 and 2006. It reported that Hamilton has said the church investigated at the time, the volunteer was barred in 2006 and police were notified. We have not examined that dispute here.

Hamilton released a video that day. According to the Kansas Reflector, he said voters who backed Trump have a place in his campaign: "When the president does something good for Kansas, I'll stand beside him and say so. When a decision out of Washington hurts our farmers, our rural hospitals, or our paychecks, I'll stand up to Washington and say that too." Brody said the rally was a sign of Marshall's campaign sinking, and that "Kansans are being crushed by rising gas and diesel prices."

How outlets and others have described the exchange

CNN's Stephen Collinson, in an analysis published Oct. 21, wrote that Trump's claim about Hamilton "was a misrepresentation of the candidate's far more expansive remarks on race, self-reflection and personal faith." The analysis described Trump's closing message as "racially charged rhetoric." It said his comments can "alienate more moderate voters." Those are CNN's characterizations. They are not findings of fact, and Trump and Marshall do not describe their message that way.

Not everyone on the right sees the strategy as a help. Mark Sanford, the Republican former governor of South Carolina, told CNN that such topics are "off-topic because the preponderance of folks that I talked to in and around South Carolina are worried about the economy." CNN reports that Sanford was speaking about Trump's remarks on transgender issues, not the Kansas race. We could not find a statement from the White House or Marshall's campaign responding to CNN's analysis.

Other Kansans reacted at and after the rally. Holscher, the Democratic nominee for governor, told KWCH that her focus is "absolutely on those in the middle, independents." She said some voters "have peeled away from the Trump administration because of high gas prices, tariffs." Former Kansas Gov. Bill Graves, whom KWCH described as one of the Republicans disappointed in the administration, said: "Going to a Trump rally is kind of like going to a freak show. It's entertaining, you never know what he's gonna say, but whether it's going to result in higher voter turnout is yet to be seen and yet to be believed." Supporters see it differently. Kansas Reflector reported attendees reacting to Trump's points on immigration, transgender issues and the economy. One, Karen Malone of Manhattan, said: "If we're going to keep our values in our country, we need to vote and be excited about voting and listen to what our politicians have to say." Another, Brittany Jones, told the Guardian that Hamilton is "a chameleon and good at saying what he thinks people want to hear." She said he has "wholly given himself to the liberal agenda."

1. Jun. 2020Hamilton gives the sermon "Jesus, Protests and Repentance"
2. Aug. 2026Main Street Fund ad calls Hamilton "way too woke for Kansas"
3. Oct. 15, 2026Fox News reports on the sermon
4. Oct. 19, 2026Trump and Marshall speak at the Park City rally
5. Oct. 21, 2026CNN publishes Collinson's analysis
6. Nov. 3, 2026Election Day

Source: Kansas City Star Reality Check, The Guardian

What the race looks like

The Guardian reports polls showing the two candidates running neck and neck. Fox News reported on Oct. 15 that the Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up. No Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas since 1932. For more on the numbers, see our report on the final Siena poll in the Kansas race and our look at the weekend rallies in Iowa and Kansas.

Both campaigns also talk about prices. Kansas Reflector reported that Trump listed lower costs among Republican priorities and announced a "harvest fuel relief" program for farmers at the rally. It said diesel has cost more than $6 a gallon in Kansas in recent weeks. Hamilton's side makes a different argument. In an August campaign video, Hamilton said Marshall "votes with the corrupt herd in Washington for tariffs and war while farmers and families in Kansas get cooked by high prices." Our summary of CNN's Senate polls includes the Kansas numbers.

Identity issues also appear in Kansas policy. We covered a state law on transgender driver's licenses and voter ID in our report on Kansas SB 244. For the national picture, see our report on Cook's Oct. 30 House ratings changes.

The third candidate and the debate

A third candidate is on the ballot. David Graham, a Libertarian from Overland Park, was excluded from a television debate between Hamilton and Marshall scheduled for Oct. 21, the Kansas Reflector reported. He said his share of the vote may be larger than the gap between the two main candidates: "My percentage of the electorate is greater than the difference between my two opponents." He said most of his support comes from voters "who simply cannot vote for either of the other candidates."

What to watch

Results come Tuesday night. In the end, voters will decide how much weight the sermon dispute carries against prices, tariffs and the other issues both campaigns raise. The full sermon is public, and anyone can compare it with the claims made on both sides.

What this report could not establish: we did not find a response from the White House to the CNN analysis or to Hamilton's campaign statements. We did not watch the full video of the sermon ourselves. Our quotations come from the Star's and Fox News's transcriptions, which match on the key lines.

Differing perspectives

How should Adam Hamilton's 2020 remarks on race and repentance figure in the Kansas Senate campaign?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Judge the sermon in its full context

  Who holds it: Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton and his campaign

  Hamilton and his campaign argue that the lines used against him leave out the rest of the sermon. In June 2020 he said he has "certain benefits by virtue of being educated, white and male," and that he had to "listen and understand" and "repent" of his own indifference. In the same sermon he preached against looting and said "all lives matter." His campaign says the ads stitch his words together to take them out of context.

  In their words: The Kansas City Star (Matthew Kelly), quoting the sermon and the campaign ↗

• Keep the focus on the economy

  Who holds it: Mark Sanford, Republican former governor of South Carolina

  Sanford argues that cultural topics do not help candidates this fall. Asked on CNN about Trump's remarks on transgender issues, he said: "I think it's off-topic because the preponderance of folks that I talked to in and around South Carolina are worried about the economy." He added: "I don't see this as the issue that's going to move swing voters."

  In their words: CNN (Stephen Collinson), quoting Sanford's interview with Erin Burnett ↗

• Treat the sermon as showing Hamilton's views

  Who holds it: President Donald Trump and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.)

  Trump and Marshall argue that Hamilton's public record does not match his image as a moderate. At the Park City rally, Trump said Hamilton is "a phoney who's pretending to be a moderate" and "wants you to repent for being born white." Marshall said Hamilton is "too woke for Kansas," that he "participates in protests against police," and that he "tells us to [apologize] for the [color] of our skin."

  In their words: The Guardian (David Smith), quoting the Oct. 19 rally remarks ↗