Democratic state senator in Kansas eager to break through pack in crowded U.S. Senate race

State Sen. Patrick Schmidt, D-Topeka, is among nine Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate. He says Kansas voters are ready for an alternative to U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, the Republican incumbent from Kansas. (Photo by Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)

TOPEKA — State Sen. Patrick Schmidt believes he can separate from a large field of Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate and overcome nearly a century of one-party dominance by Republicans by campaigning against deep-pocketed special interests thwarting reasonable reform.

Schmidt, a state senator from Topeka, is among nine candidates for the Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. Senate. The August primary winner would have an opportunity to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a GOP ally of President Donald Trump.

“We have an opportunity this cycle to send a message to Washington, to send a fighter for Kansas — not a fighter for special interests,” Schmidt said. “It’s not about, you know, D versus R here. We have an opportunity to (elect) a real fighter for Kansas, not a partisan hack.”

Kansas Democrats, sensing a potential blue wave of opposition to Trump in 2026, have been drawn to the Senate campaign. The race, so far, has featured regular attacks on Marshall, who has a substantial campaign finance advantage over any challenger.

The Democratic Party’s nominee would have to grapple with Kansas political history. The last time Kansas voters elected a Democratic candidate to the U.S. Senate was 1932.

“I think it’s clear that Kansas wants an alternative to Roger Marshall,” Schmidt said.

On Monday, Schmidt’s campaign released a poll showing a statistical tie a head-to-head contest between Schmidt and Marshall. In the survey, 68% of voters said they were disappointed with what political leaders in Washington had done to fix the economy.

Schmidt said Kansas voters sought common-sense representation that gave more than lip service to lowering health care costs. Congress should make access to technical college degrees or a university education more affordable, Schmidt said.

He said Trump’s approach to tariffs damaged international markets and imposed backdoor taxes on consumers. He said there was obvious frustration among the state’s voters with the Trump administration’s war against Iran.

“This war is entering its third month. We don’t know why we’re there, but we know that families are paying the cost,” Schmidt said. “There’s no doubt that what Congress is doing is hurting Kansas farmers, and we should have a United States senator that is not afraid to say so.”

He said Kansans observing Washington politics could justifiably argue that Congress “declared economic war on American families.”

Schmidt vowed not to side with U.S. senators consistently supportive of federal tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. He said those beneficiaries routinely rewarded politicians with massive campaign contributions.

“At this point, when you think about the corruption that we see every day in the news, it’s grossly unpopular,” Schmidt said. “That shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”

Schmidt said the birth of his son in 2025 clarified economic challenges faced by families in Kansas. His door-to-door campaigning provided further evidence of the necessity for government to embrace policies that relieved financial pressure on families.

“It’s harder and harder just to keep your head above water, and we have politicians that are only worried about special interests, worried about lining their own pockets,” Schmidt said.

In the Kansas Legislature, Schmidt opposed bills granting state tax breaks to owners of private aircraft and investors in gold and silver. He was the only Senate Democrat to vote for a proposed amendment to the Kansas Constitution limiting annual increases in property valuations tied to tax assessments.

Schmidt, part of a family of Ukrainian immigrant farmers, said his father was the first in the family to go to college. Both of his parents were educators in the Shawnee Mission public schools, and his father was a custom harvester of wheat until the farm crisis of the 1980s. By the time Schmidt enrolled in college, his father was struggling with heart and lung disease as well as neurological disorders.

Schmidt earned a bachelor’s degree at Tufts University in 2013 and was commissioned an officer in the U.S. Navy. He served on the USS Ronald Reagan and with a special forces team in Bahrain. In 2021, he transitioned to the U.S. Naval Reserves.

In 2022, he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. House seat held at that time by Republican Jake LaTurner. In that 2nd District race across two-dozen eastern Kansas counties, Schmidt denounced the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He objected to LaTurner’s vote to overturn results of the 2020 presidential election and was critical of the congressman’s opposition to abortion rights.

“The thing I’m proudest most about that campaign is that we got more Democrats out in all but one of those counties in the 2nd District in 2022 compared to 2020,” he said.