Democratic groups accuse Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of protecting Jeffrey Epstein's associates, while a GOP super PAC claims Democrat Adam Hamilton shielded a child abuser. Court records, congressional votes and investigative reporting reveal significant omissions in both attacks.
TOPEKA, Kan. | In Kansas’ tight Senate race, ads from Democratic and Republican outside groups are accusing the other party’s candidate of having protected pedophiles. In both cases, the attacks are misleading or unsupported by the evidence.
Ads from Democratic groups misleadingly claim Sen. Roger Marshall, the Republican incumbent, helped cover up Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes by voting to keep the Epstein files under wraps while taking money from the convicted sex offender’s “associates.”
Marshall supported the November 2025 law that required the Justice Department to publicly release the files. He previously voted against a Democratic amendment calling for the files’ release, saying he opposed attaching it to an unrelated defense bill. As for the purported Epstein “associates,” they’re people whose names appear incidentally in the files but had no documented contact with Epstein, or whose interactions with him were limited. None has been accused of wrongdoing.
An ad from a Republican group, meanwhile, claims Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton, a pastor, “protected a pedophile” accused of molesting teenage boys two decades ago at a camp his church ran.
According to court records reviewed by local news outlets, the boys reported the abuse but couldn’t identify the culprit, and the church didn’t notify police. It’s unclear what role Hamilton played in that decision. The next year, a camp volunteer was caught and reported to police. Hamilton has acknowledged that the church could have handled the situation better, but there’s no evidence he knowingly protected a predator.
The Cook Political Report rates the Kansas race as one of several toss-ups that could determine control of the Senate on Nov. 3. President Donald Trump campaigned for Marshall in Kansas on Nov. 1, the president’s second rally in the state in two weeks.
