(Developing: Will be updated as warranted)
Johnson County megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton outdistanced all of his rivals for the U.S. Senate in fundraising during the last quarter, hauling in $3 million more than Republican incumbent Roger Marshall and more than any of the other seven Democrats who filed their finance reports when they were due Wednesday.
Hamilton had already announced his fundraising results for the quarter ending June 30, but for the first time his campaign revealed that he had about $2.6 million in cash on hand as he tries to win a Democratic primary that includes 10 other Democratic candidates, who are vastly underfunded by comparison.
Marshall, who is seeking a second term this year, reported raising $611,446 during the last quarter but still has about $5.3 million in cash on hand and he has nominal opposition in the primary.
“Sen. Marshall enters the fall with more cash on hand than every Democrat in the field combined. Several of these Democrats have burn rates that are astonishing,” said Marshall’s chief of staff Brent Robertson.
“As we learned in 2020 when Chuck Schumer laid a $30M goose egg in Kansas, Act Blue shadow money doesn’t translate to votes,” Robertson said.
The Hamilton campaign said that Marshall is raising most of his money from political action committees. The Hamilton campaign said 27 named Kansans gave an itemized contribution to the senator’s campaign during the quarter.
“The contrast could not be more clear: Adam Hamilton broke Kansas records by raising $3.66 million from over 16,000 donors, while Roger Marshall could only find 27 Kansans to donate to support his re-election,” said Tyson Brody, spokesperson for the Hamilton campaign,
““Roger Marshall raised ore from drug company corporate PACs – and more money from his new home in Florida – than from Kansans,” Brody said.
Hamilton’s fundraising includes donations from founding Eagles band member Don Henley, former Democratic U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Ty Cobb, a Great Bend native who served as a White House lawyer during President Donald Trump’s first term who has become a fierce critic of the president.
Hamilton also received a contribution from film producer Jordan Kerner, whose credits include Charlotte’s Web, When A Man Loves A Woman, The Three Musketeers, The Mighty Ducks Trilogy and Fried Green Tomatoes.
Other prominent donors include retired railroad executive Warren Erdman, who earlier served as chief of staff to Republican U.S. Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri, Matt All, president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Kansas City developer Keith Copaken, Kansas home builder Tom French and Donald Hall Jr., executive chairman of the Hallmark Card Board of Directors.
Other donors included John Kemper, chairman and chief executive officer of Commerce Bank, philanthropist Shirley Helzberg, and Irv Hockaday, the retired president and CEO of Hallmark Cards.
Hamilton’s fundraising gives him a sizable edge in the Democratic primary where he and veteran Noah Taylor are the only candidates who have been up able to get up on televisions.
Hamilton has already booked or spent about $900,000 on television not counting another $421,000 that he has spent on digital advertising.
Taylor has been getting help from The 1861 PAC, which is based in Wichita and has booked or spent about $700,000 on television on behalf of the candidate.
The PAC was created last April. The phone number of the PAC’s treasurer – Cassandra Tinsmon – is the same as Katz Compliance in Washington D.C.
Katz Compliance describes itself as “well-established and well-known in the world of progressive politics.” The president of Katz is Cassie Tinsmon, who has 15 years of compliance experience.
The firm’s website said her undergraduate studies in social work at Wichita State University led to an internship with the late abortion provider George Tiller, who was shot to death in 2009.
Most of the campaigns of the other candidates have largely been confined to social media, meet-and-greet events with voters and occasional television and radio appearances or a press conference – not the kind of activities that get candidates broad exposure in a statewide campaign.
Taylor reported raising $83,333 and had $10,866 in cash on hand the end of the reporting period on June 30.
Democratic state Sen. Patrick Schmidt, who has been highly critical of Hamilton, reported raising $67,173 last quarter and had about $24,912 in cash on hand at the end of June.
Kansas City developer Erik Murray reported raising $29,444 during the last quarter and had just $9,980 in cash on hand going into the last month of the campaign.
Retired businesswoman Sandy Spidel Neumann reported raising $122,329 during the quarter, but she lent her campaign $100,000.
She has now reported raising about $310,000 for her U.S. Senate campaign, including $200,000 in loans. She now has about $75,000 in cash on hand for her campaign.
Former federal prosecutor Jason Hart reported raising $$40,385 during the second quarter and had about $18,200 in the bank when the quarter ended on June 30. About $30,000 of that sum was his own money.
Last month, a lawyer for the state Democratic Party on Tuesday rebuked Hart after the candidate lashed out at the local party in Crawford County for either refusing or failing to publicize his events.
Battling to get traction in a crowded Democratic Party field, Hart went on Facebook and criticized the Crawford County party’s chair and then highlighting what he said were criminal charges against her husband.
He suggested that the party chair’s action was retaliating against him because the case was investigated by a state agency that he worked closely with as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s office where he investigated child abuse, sex trafficking and domestic violence.
Immigration lawyer Anne Parlekar filed a report showing she raised $12,242 for the quarter and about $32,000 overall for her campaign, including $5,500 in loans. She has $3,300 in cash on hand at the end of the month.
Kevin Latz, a physician from Mission Hills, reported raising $37,759, including $30,000 he put into his own campaign.
Democratic candidates Christy Davis, Damon Anderson and Michael Soetart had not filed reports as of Thursday morning.
