Milquetoast Marshall flees from Kansans and hides from reporters. Somehow, he still wants your vote!
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall speaks at a Kansas Chamber event on Aug. 27, 2026, in Olathe. (Photo by Anna Kaminski/Kansas Reflector)
Put down your coffee. Set the bran muffin aside. I have an exclusive for Kansas Reflector readers this morning. Here’s the complete list of public, in-person campaign events planned by U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas.
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Looks great, right?
Marshall claims to be on a 120-stop tour of Kansas, but his adventures across the Sunflower State have been conducted almost entirely in private, behind closed doors and without advance warning of his stops.
They’re not listed on his campaign website. Trust me, I looked.
They’re not listed on his campaign Facebook page, either. The events section stops in 2020.
With a few exceptions, members of the news media have not been invited to observe, and members of the public have been blocked from attending or asking the senator questions. His campaign hasn’t informed Kansas Reflector about those tour plans, preferring to post pretty pictures on social media.
Marshall offered an excuse in comments to the Hays Post.
“The town halls just became non-productive and dangerous, not just dangerous for myself, but dangerous for my staff and dangerous for the people in the audience as well, so I just don’t think that they’re safe to do,” Marshall said.
You might notice that Marshall used the word “dangerous” three times in that quote, perhaps attempting to persuade himself that public events carried some sort of actual risk.
They don’t, and Marshall knows it. He and his staff have never been physically unsafe, but they have faced outraged constituents.
He can’t stand the heat, so he’s beating a hasty retreat from the kitchen.
You could watch temperatures rise during the senator’s March 1, 2025, event in Oakley Kansas, where constituents turned out in force. They demanded answers about the brutal idiocy of President Donald Trump‘s administration, embodied by the ill-named Department of Government Efficiency.
Clearly rattled, Marshall fled the scene 20 minutes early. He later fantasized that paid agitators were behind the event.
His chief of staff, Brent Robertson, smeared the audience: “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.”
“Real Kansans” only support Roger Marshall? Puh-leeze. Incidentally, Politico reported in October 2025 that Robertson had charged taxpayers $44,000 for commuting between Washington, D.C., and his home in Lynchburg, Virginia.
A Virginian should know about “real Kansans,” I guess!
In the 17 months since the Oakley debacle, Marshall has not held a single open, public, in-person event. Access to the senator has been tightly controlled. Even scheduling a debate between him and Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton has turned into a partisan sniping match. Marshall apparently hopes to get away without answering any questions at all.
He probably hoped to get away with the same approach to his reelection campaign. Democrats haven’t won a U.S. Senate seat in Kansas since 1932 and can usually be counted on to faceplant. In the meantime, Marshall’s office guided a “coordinated effort” to fill his spot with a Republican if he had to resign for, you know, reasons.
That’s all to say I don’t think our favorite Florida man expected that he would have to spend time and effort in this dry Midwestern state. We don’t even have oceanfront property!
Please note that these criticisms have nothing whatsoever to do with Marshall’s party or beliefs or governing philosophy.
He’s been an odious rubber stamp for Trump and provided cover for an appalling evisceration of public health. But those are different columns for different times. As a candidate for public office, Marshall needs to make a public case. He has appeared frequently enough on D.C. talk shows to prove he can handle himself.
Apparently, though, he’s only comfortable taking tough questions from people in tailored suits and designer outfits. And only after he spends some time in a professional makeup artist’s chair.
You have to campaign.
That means meeting people who aren’t on a pre-approved list. That means answering questions that didn’t go through a pre-screening process. That means, yes, interacting with dastardly journalists now and then. The people of Kansas are not a danger to Marshall. They do not wish him ill. They simply want him to face them honestly, in person, and answer questions.
The only danger out there for Marshall, and it seems like a real enough one in these early days of the fall campaign, is that he actually loses his seat.
Perhaps that’s why he’s running scared.
Clay Wirestone is Kansas Reflector opinion editor. His first book, “Opinionated: Kansas Journalists Who Proved Why Commentary Matters — Then and Now,” comes out Sept. 29 from 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.