(Updated to include new video and email sent to church members)
The race for the U.S. Senate took a new turn Friday when the founding pastor of one of the largest Methodist churches in the United States announced that he was considering a run against Republican incumbent Roger Marshall as an independent.
Adam Hamilton, founding pastor of the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, announced Friday that he was creating an exploratory committee to consider a campaign for the U.S. Senate. He could join six Democrats who have already announced campaigns.
“Our society is growing more polarized; concern for our fellow Americans, kindness, and reasoned dialogue are endangered,” Hamilton said.
“Our nation’s founders dreamt of a country where people of diverse views came together in pursuit of ‘liberty and justice for all.’
“But today, E Pluribus Unum – Out of Many, One — feels like E Pluribus Divisio — Out of Many, (even more) division,” he said.
“The American experiment feels fragile. Families and communities are divided. We are better together, and we need leaders who will work to unite us rather than seeking to divide.”
Hamilton sent out an email note to church members Friday.
“Over the years, I’ve had numerous people suggest I run for office,” he told them.
“I’ve been told that my experience leading this congregation, my passion for building bridges instead of walls, for seeking to ‘close the gap’ between the world as it is and the world as it should be, and an emphasis on essential human values found in the gospels – loving our neighbor, and our enemy, and treating others the way we want to be treated – is needed in national politics today,” he wrote.
He said he’s now testing the waters for a campaign, which involves fasting and praying.
He said he will spend five days during the next four weeks driving across Kansas “to listen and hear the concerns hopes of other Kansans…”
“I am not a candidate, nor am I announcing a candidacy. But only strongly considering this. Our plan is to make a decision ten days after Easter,” he wrote.
Hamilton also released a video explaining his plans.
“There are three loves in my life. The first is my love for God. The second is my love for my family. And third is my love for you, Resurrection,” he said in the video.
“I have devoted the last 36 years to starting, growing and leading this congregation. I am so proud of you.
“I see this as a possible way of extending our work of bringing people together and ‘closing the gap.’ Thank you for praying for me,” he said.
Well known within Johnson County, Hamilton, 61, leads a congregation of more than 24,000 active members who worship each weekend online, on television, and at one of six satellite locations across the Kansas City area.
The church, which started in 1990, has locations in Leawood, downtown Kansas City, Olathe, Blue Springs, Overland Park, Spring Hill, Liberty and Lee’s Summit.
As of last June, the church had an operating budget of about $30 million and assets of about $179 million.
Hamilton, who’s authored more than 30 books, earned a bachelor’s in pastoral ministry from Oral Roberts University and a master’s of divinity from Southern Methodist University.
Former President Barack Obama appointed Hamilton to the president’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnership.
In 2013, Hamilton delivered the sermon at the Inaugural Prayer Service held at the National Cathedral in Washington.
He’s also been a critic of rules in the Methodist Church that kept LGBTQ people from serving as pastors.
Two years ago, United Methodist delegates repealed a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers.
At the time, he told a Kansas City television station that the “thought that our denomination will no longer hurt people, I think, will be a source of great joy.”
In a 2024 interview, Hamilton explained the need for an inclusive church.
“As a congregation, that’s been one issue about which we have been clear. This is a church that’s going to be inclusive of everyone,” Hamilton told Kansas News Service in a 2024 interview.
“And that was hard. We had people leave the church,” he told KNS.
Hamilton told KNS that 800 people left the church in 2004 after he preached that gay and lesbian people belong in the church. He also said 1,200 more members joined.
“Since we started the church in 1990, I felt a concern and compassion for the gay and lesbian people who came to visit Resurrection,” Hamilton wrote in a 2024 blog post.
“As I listened to their stories I heard again and again the harm they had felt from Christians and churches. This was 34 years ago.
“My sense then, as now, was that Christ never intended the faith he was launching to be used as a rationale for bullying, teasing, or excluding people. These were God’s children too,” he wrote.
“I’ve had people tell me I’m a heretic, or just plain evil, because of these convictions.
“I can only say that my highest aspiration, what Stephen Curtis Chapman once called the ‘magnificent obsession,’ is to follow Christ.
“I want to know, love, and follow him, and to help others to do the same. As you know, my day begins each morning on my knees, offering my life to him, inviting the Holy Spirit to form and shape me, my heart and mind, and to use me.
“But I also know that I fail at this again and again. My thinking about God and same-sex marriage reflects my sense of God’s heart, character and will. And I realize I could be wrong,” he wrote.
He said the last survey of the congregation in 2020 found that 75% considered themselves progressive when it came to same-sex marriage, and 25% considered themselves traditional.
Hamilton could join a field where there are already six Democratic candidates running for the U.S. Senate, some of who have already been raising money.
They include state Sen. Patrick Schmidt of Topeka, Kansas City developer Erik Murray, retired businesswoman Sandy Spidel Neumann of Merriam, former congressional candidate Christy Davis of Cottonwood Falls and Overland Park immigration lawyer Anne Parelkar.
Marshall’s most recent campaign report for the period ending Dec. 31 showed that he raised about $745,000 during the last quarter of the year.
Overall, he reported having about $4 million in the bank.
Murray reported raising about $125,000 during the last quarter of the year and had nearly $109,000 in cash on hand at the end of 2025. Murray announced his candidacy on Dec. 3.
Spidel Neumann reported raising $167,587 in the last quarter of 2025, including a $100,000 loan to her campaign. She had about $127,000 in cash on hand at the end of the year.
Parelkar filed a report showing she raised $6,335 during the last quarter of 2025, including a $3,000 personal loan to the campaign.
Parelkar reported raising $16,982 for the election cycle so far, of which $4,500 were in loans to the campaign.
Washburn political scientist Bob Beatty noted the difficulty that any independent candidate might have running for office.
Eight years ago, Greg Orman ran as an independent for governor against Democrat Laura Kelly and Republican Kris Kobach.
Rick Kloos, now a state senator from Berryton, also ran as an independent that year.
Orman finished third with 6.5% of the vote. Kloos finished last with 0.62%.
“In politics, nothing’s impossible,” Beatty said. “It’s just so difficult for an independent.
“Not having a political party, you lose party ID, of course,” he said. “A lot of voters…they vote just a straight party line.
“The independent has to spend all those resources to convince them not to,” he said.
