Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton (D-KS) warned his party on Monday that it does not necessarily hold a firm grasp on voters it flipped blue last week, cautioning that the blue wave could relapse if Democrats do not focus on delivering results.
Hamilton is one of at least seven Democrats who managed to wrest a Senate seat from Republican control in the 2026 elections, allowing his party to seize a majority in the upper chamber. In Kansas, Hamilton toppled Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) in a state considered traditionally red territory.
Hamilton weighed in on the results this week during an NBC interview, suggesting that if Democrats turn their focus to targeting President Donald Trump instead of engaging in substantive debate, they could lose electoral support again.
“This wasn’t, you know, a rousing endorsement of Democrats,” Hamilton said of the elections. “It was a huge repudiation of what’s happening in Washington, D.C.”
“If I spent the next two years, my first two years in the Senate, in investigations, I’d be deeply disappointed,” Hamilton added, as top House Democrats vow to probe the White House on alleged corruption. “I want to get to work helping the people in my state and helping the people across the country.”
“If we don’t figure that out and get to work on helping people, this is going to be a one-and-done kind of, you know, blue wave,” he said.
Leading Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), and Reps. Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD), have already indicated that they intended to make targeting Trump and his allies among their top priorities when they control Congress in January 2027.
“We’re committed to accountability and to holding the crooks accountable if you’ve been stealing from the American people, screwing over the American people, or shortchanging the American people,” Jeffries said Monday during a CBS interview.
Hamilton suggested that partisan bickering would only hurt Democrats, whom he urged to demonstrate that they can work with Republicans if they want to continue winning elections.
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“I think the vast majority of Americans are somewhere right or left of center,” Hamilton said. “And we’ve got to be able to speak to that vast majority and bring people together.”
“The Democratic brand has been damaged in America,” the Kansas pastor added. “And I think it’s really important that Democrats recognize that and say, ‘What are we going to do to address this?’”