Incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) is facing continued heat over reports that the former doctor has unfairly cracked down on his patients’ minor medical debts, now taking a blow in the form of an advertisement from his Democratic opponent.
Democratic nominee for the Kansas Senate seat and pastor Adam Hamilton is out with a new video advertisement with a former patient of Marshall’s, named “Meischa.” In the video ad, Meischa says she was arrested because she “didn’t make a $50 payment to Roger Marshall.”
“I was eight months pregnant, and I said, ‘Please, do not handcuff me in front of my 2-year-old daughter,’” the woman said in the advertisement. “Roger Marshall preyed on the low-income families of Kansas. The healthcare system is broken, but not for Roger Marshall. He’s absolutely profiting from it.”
The advertisement, approved by Hamilton, follows a report from the New York Times that detailed Marshall’s former OB-GYN practice sued over 700 patients for unpaid medical bills, with 81 of the lawsuits resulting in arrests. Democrats, who have platformed their policies to address healthcare affordability nationwide, have jumped on the report, seeing it as an opening to attack Marshall in the red state that went for President Donald Trump by over 16 percentage points in 2024.
Marshall has rebuffed the New York Times report, calling it “a hit job by left media, an article paid for by [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer,” in an interview with Fox News.
“I would never want anyone to be arrested because of money that they owe myself or the hospital,” Marshall told the outlet. “But we had standard policies. Once they went to collections, I was never asked another — had nothing else to do with the process. These were professional companies that did the collection processes.”
This week, election forecaster Cook Political Report shifted the race in favor of Hamilton, changing its rating of the Kansas Senate race from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican,” as part of what Cook Political Report analyst Jessica Taylor called a “very blue environment forming” nationwide.
“Republican Sen. Roger Marshall has been put on the defensive over his billing and collection practices as an OBGYN, which Democrats promise to prosecute on the air in a state where advertising is fairly inexpensive,” Taylor wrote in her analysis of the Kansas rating shift. “The attacks will come just as Democratic Methodist pastor Adam Hamilton is running an increasingly strong race.”
Vice President JD Vance was in Kansas on Sept. 24 to stump for Marshall, calling the incumbent “amazing,” a successful senator, and “just as good of a man.”
“In Doc Marshall, you have a man who devoted his life to delivering babies and making sure that moms and children from every walk of life were safe and had the healthcare that they need,” Vance said. “So I ask you this November to stand for a man who stood for moms and babies, to stand for a man who stood for all Kansas.”
COOK POLITICAL REPORT SHIFTS KEY SENATE RACES TOWARD DEMOCRATS
Recent polling between the two candidates has been largely split, with a new Emerson College poll giving Hamilton a single-digit advantage.
Kansas is currently represented by two Republican senators, Marshall and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS). Marshall won his Senate election in 2020 by 11.4 percentage points over former Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Marshall’s campaign for comment.