A Megachurch Pastor is Running for Senate. Will Democrats Vote for Him?
As he seeks to unseat a Republican in Kansas, Adam Hamilton speaks of his work leading the state’s largest church — and making it appealing to nonreligious people.In the race for U.S. Senate in Kansas, the Democrat quotes the Bible from memory on the campaign trail and has described voting as “an act of Christian discipleship.” He is the pastor of the largest church in the state.
His Republican opponent derides him as a “megachurch C.E.O.”
With just a few weeks until Election Day, the race appears neck and neck in a state that has sent only Republicans to the Senate since 1932.
Adam Hamilton, the Democrat seeking to unseat Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican, is a political newcomer. But Mr. Hamilton had a relatively high profile even before entering the race, thanks to his long career as a pastor at Church of the Resurrection, a Methodist congregation based outside Kansas City. Many Kansans have seen television broadcasts of his church services, read his books in their Bible studies or watched his DVD series tracing the story of Jesus’ birth.
His campaign doesn’t use the word “megachurch,” but with about 24,000 members across nine locations in Kansas, Missouri and Ohio, his church is one by any standard.
Mr. Hamilton, a former Republican who considered running as an independent, has emphasized issues like the rising costs of health care, fuel and fertilizer in his campaign. But he also speaks often of his life in the church, describing it as a role that goes beyond preaching.
He notes in his stump speech that with dozens of pastors on his church staff, there is no need for him to make the kinds of personal visits to members in crisis that are part of the job for leaders of smaller congregations.
“But I still go to the hospital, and I still go to hospices to sit with people while they’re dying,” he told voters at a campaign stop in Wichita last month. “I do it for me, because it helps my heart stay alive.”
Mr. Hamilton is part of a small but notable cluster of Protestant clergy or seminarians who are pursuing national office as Democrats this cycle. A strong showing by these candidates could remind their party that Republicans do not have a monopoly on the religious vote, said Michael Wear, the founder and president of the Center for Christianity and Public Life. Blue and purple states have many religious voters, too, and candidates who appeal to a broader swath of voters should be deployed beyond the country’s deepest red areas, he said.
“It’s one thing for Democrats to be open to a candidate like Adam Hamilton in Kansas,” Mr. Wear said. “A candidate like Adam Hamilton will probably also be really useful in more obviously competitive states.”
The group includes James Talarico, the party’s nominee for U.S. Senate in Texas, who speaks easily and often about how his faith influences his politics. Mr. Talarico is on leave from his studies at a Presbyterian seminary. A candidate for Congress in Iowa, Sarah Trone Garriott, is a Lutheran minister who still preaches several Sundays a month.
A Megachurch Pastor is Running for Senate. Will Democrats Vote for Him?
As he seeks to unseat a Republican in Kansas, Adam Hamilton speaks of his work leading the state’s largest church — and making it appealing to nonreligious people.
www.nytimes.com
