(RNS) — Thirty-six years ago, the Rev. Adam Hamilton co-founded a church with a handful of people in a funeral home chapel. Now, that congregation is the largest United Methodist church in the nation, and Hamilton is setting his sights on a new venue: the United States Congress.
Hamilton, 61, announced his run for U.S. Senate on Thursday morning (April 30) in a press conference in Prairie Village, the suburban city he was raised in. Describing himself as an “independent-minded Democrat,” he emphasized his church’s community building and charity work and said his decades in ministry prepared him to be a bridge-builder in Congress.
“In a world that feels more and more divided, I’ve had the privilege of being a pastor for 36 years of a church that’s roughly equally divided between Republicans, Democrats and independents,” said Hamilton at the press conference. “Our people love each other precisely because of their differences.”
With over 24,000 members and nine locations in the Kansas City area, Resurrection, A United Methodist Church has earned a reputation for its civic engagement and “big tent” approach to ministry. A prolific writer and popular preacher, Hamilton has authored more than 30 books, is host of the “Making Sense of Faith” podcast, and has gained a national following; in 2013, he delivered the sermon at the National Prayer Service to conclude President Obama’s inaugural ceremonies. He later served on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
“For me, this feels like a calling,” Hamilton told RNS Friday morning. “It feels like a calling I’m willing to take great risks for, make great sacrifices for, because I care about our country, and I care about the people in my community, and I care about the people in Kansas.”
The Rev. Adam Hamilton preaches on atonement at Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, on March 29, 2025. (Video screen grab)
The announcement comes after an 18-stop listening tour around Kansas where Hamilton said he heard concerns about rising costs, lack of health care access, tariffs and immigration policies impacting workforce shortages. Hamilton told RNS he hopes to prioritize those concerns in his campaign and focus on bringing “decency” to Washington, D.C. He added that the tour is part of what convinced him to run as a Democrat rather than an independent — people feared that, as an independent, he would split the votes and pave the way for an easy win from Roger Marshall, the Trump-allied Republican Senator (and nondenominational Christian) from Kansas.
“For me, that was an easy decision to make,” he told RNS.
Despite his following, Hamilton’s path to the Senate isn’t straightforward. Kansas last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1932, and several other Democratic hopefuls have announced bids for the senate seat ahead of the Aug. 4 primary. Last week, the Kansas Republican Party filed a federal election complaint against Hamilton, alleging he violated a federal ban on direct corporate campaign donations by using a church email list, YouTube channel and website to share about the possibility of a campaign.
Hamilton told RNS the claims are unfounded and that it was necessary that his congregation heard it from him directly that he was considering an election bid.
“I really think this is just a sign of Republicans being afraid that I’m running. I think they were trying, before I was even a candidate, to try to stop us,” he said.
In a Thursday email to Resurrection members, Hamilton said he would remain senior pastor but will reduce his schedule. He won’t be preaching during the campaign after the conclusion of his current sermon series. If elected, he plans to continue serving the church part time and anticipates retiring from his church role by 2030, per the church website.
The sanctuary of United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. (RNS photo/Kit Doyle)
If elected, he’d join one other active pastor as senator — the Rev. Senator Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia and pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Hamilton is one of several other Christian clergy running as Democrats for Congress in 2026, as well as James Talarico, a recent seminary graduate and Presbyterian whose progressive Christian convictions have been making waves in Texas. Hamilton says the reason so many clergy are running this year is because they see a discrepancy between their faith and what’s happening in Washington.
“I think a lot of moderates, a lot of centrist Republicans and Democrats, are saying, ‘This is not right,’” he told RNS. “Whether it’s how we treat immigrants and making people afraid in our own borders, or the rhetoric that comes out of Washington, or cutting programs like SNAP and other programs that affect low-income children and families in America, I think there’s a lot of pastors and a lot of Christians who have just said, ‘This is not us.’”
Before his debut in politics, Hamilton waded through contentious waters in his own denomination as the United Methodist Church faced a schism over LGBTQ+ inclusion. Hamilton was an early advocate for policies that would allow churches and regional bodies to decide whether to allow same-sex marriage and LGBTQ-clergy.
“People say this to me: ‘I can’t figure you out. Are you liberal or conservative?’” Hamilton told RNS in 2019. My answer is always, yes, of course. Do I have to pick? Because those two are really both important ideas — to be open to reform, generous in spirit and at the same time to be conserving things that are the historic core of our faith.”
