Opinion: US Sen. Roger Marshall lost his seat long before Kansans kicked him out. He just didn’t realize it.

U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall officially lost his seat to the Rev. Adam Hamilton on Tuesday night as part of a resounding repudiation of Republicans across the United States.

But Marshall actually lost that seat 20 months ago, when he clashed with everyday Kansans at a March 1 town hall meeting in Oakley.

Facing tough questions from an audience fed up with President Donald Trump’s Department Of Government Efficiency, Marshall left the meeting early. For the rest of 2025 and all this year, he avoided further public events. Oh, he would show up for photo opportunities, but Marshall had apparently had it with his constituents. (Town halls, he claimed, could lead to violence.)

That wasn’t all, though. Marshall’s apparatchiks apparently felt the need to blame those who made their boss look bad.

His chief of staff Brent Robertson, blasted the following vitriolic statement:

“Democrat operatives who couldn’t place Oakley, Kansas on a map before today sabotaged a local town hall — even still, Senator Marshall stayed and answered every question that was asked for 45 minutes. Real Kansans overwhelmingly support President Trump’s DOGE initiative, shrinking the size of the federal government, and firing career bureaucrats. Local Oakley citizens had no clue who these people were and were embarrassed by the behavior. Senator Marshall is to be commended for staying as long as he did.”

“Real Kansans,” huh?

I think “real Kansans” had something to say on Tuesday to night to Marshall — and to Robertson, whom the senator still managed to thank in his deer-in-the-headlights concession speech.

That’s the kind of rhetoric made all too familiar by Trump and his Make America Great Again Acolytes. Marshall arrived in Washington, D.C., alongside Trump, and he seldom let a millimeter of daylight shine between him and the president.

That slavish devotion earned him favor. Not for nothing did Trump visit Kansas twice in recent weeks. Not for nothing did Vice President JD Vance make two stops of his own.

But this attachment to the man and his style left Marshall flat-footed when it came to actually interacting with — actually listening to — his constituents. Those who dared to question Republican policies were, as Robertson claimed, embarrassing. The real, true, conservative Kansans would support the senator no matter what.

Marshall genuinely seemed to be confused!

“I’ve never seen such hatred coming out of people’s mouths at President Trump and his agenda,” he said last year. “I don’t know why people are upset that the borders are safe and the price of gas and groceries are down and the economy’s looking better.”

He still seemed bewildered last night, admitting in his concession speech that “I don’t have any answers.”

Real Kansans had an answer. And that was voting for a new senator — one who might actually stop and listen.

Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. His first book, “Opinionated: Kansas Journalists Who Proved Why Commentary Matters — Then and Now,” was published in September 2026 by the University Press of Kansas. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.