Long-time Republican political consultant Mike Murphy is concerned that Republicans have put themselves in a bind with some of the people that they've elected over the years.
In a post on X, Murphy wrote of the disastrous debate between Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Ks.) and Rev. Adam Hamilton (D) at the Kansas State Fair over the weekend, in which Marshall was not only booed, but he was attacked for allegedly not living in the state.
Marshall was outed in 2024 for spending taxpayer dollars on "official trips" near his $1.2 million Sarasota, Florida home, The Kansas City Star reported at the time. Marshall's Kansas home is a 1,120-square-foot cabin in western Kansas.
"At 1,949 square feet, the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house is valued at $1.2 million, more than eight times the appraised value of the cabin and surrounding land near St. John in Stafford County," said the Star. It is a "much larger and more expensive house that includes a boat dock on a bayou and is only a short walk away from Sarasota Bay."
The Star questioned at the time whether Marshall's use of taxpayer dollars to shuttle him to his Florida home was "legal."
The report explained, "It is illegal to use taxpayer money to pay for personal travel." However, "Marshall’s office said each of the trips to Florida were for official purposes."
"Marshall is living a nightmare. Thought he had a nice, safe seat. Now this. Reminds me of the look I saw on (the far more able) Sen. Rudy Boschwitz’s face in a MN state GOP meeting after the tracking poll numbers came back showing a massive popular surge for Paul Wellstone…" said Murphy.
Wellstone went on to win the seat in a huge upset in the 1990 election, 36 years ago.
Marshall was heckled at the debate with crowds chanting "shame on you," and "you don't live here!"
The former chant came from a report by The New York Times that Marshall sued more than 700 patients when he was a physician, resulting in 81 of them being arrested due to "outstanding medical debts."
Thesenator is also butting up against President Donald Trump's trade war with Canada because a Canadian jet maker, Bombardier, has a manufacturing facility in Wichita. Trump intends to target the company and the 1,500 jobs it provides for Kansans.
While Marshall said that he would fight for the jobs, critics told him he must "own it."
