Vice President JD Vance will be in Kansas again Monday, this time in Topeka, to rally for Republican U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, just a week after a visit from President Donald Trump.
Vance visited the Sunflower State already last month, coming to Johnson County to support Marshall and other Republicans last month.
Visits from national Republicans used to be a rarity in Kansas. Trump had previously not visited the state since 2018.
That was until Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton entered the race. Polls show Hamilton and Marshall as neck-and-neck. If Hamilton defeats Marshall, he’d be the first Democratic Kansas senator in nearly a century.
“We’re pulling out all the stops,” Marshall told KCMO Talk Radio’s Pete Mundo. “We’re assuming that this is as close as these polls say they are.”
Hamilton's campaign said the repeated high-profile Republican visits show that GOP leaders in Washington are "trying their best" to help Marshall's chances.
“Sending the Vice President twice in six weeks to campaign for a senator tells you everything you need to know about how Roger Marshall’s campaign is going," Hamilton spokesperson Glynnis Harvey said in a statement. "After last night’s debate, they know that Adam Hamilton’s message of leading from the middle is resonating with voters. Kansans are ready for change.”
The vice president's visit comes after Trump campaigned — for nearly two hours — in favor of Marshall near Wichita.
“Pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot,” Trump asked Kansans Monday.
The Topeka event will start in the afternoon and is open to the public.
The vice president and president’s visits have drawn thousands of supporters sporting “Make America Great Again” hats and a handful of protesters.
Over the two days following Vance’s initial visit, Emerson College polled likely Kansas voters and found that Hamilton led Marshall by two percentage points, which is still within the margin of error.
Numerous national Republicans privately urged Marshall to take his race more seriously, per Politico.
In the last few weeks, Marshall has had some unexpected reinforcements — including a massive push from the GOP’s Senate Leadership Fund and a veteran Republican operative joining his campaign.
But Marshall continues to largely trail Hamilton in the polls, though still mostly within the margin of error. A chunk of people surveyed said they don’t know who they’d vote for.
A Republican strategist told Politico they’re betting that the remaining undecided voters are Trump voters.