By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
Democratic Candidate for U.S. Senate Adam Hamilton was in Hays on Sunday campaigning on affordability and governing from the middle.
Hamilton discussed the need to address the cost of living, which he said has risen because of tariffs and the war in Iran.
Hamilton told the story of a single mom living in Kansas City who just couldn’t make the ends meet. She has a 16-year-old autistic son and a mother living in Kansas City who is sick. She told Hamilton she is working more hours at her health care job than ever before and still can’t pay the bills.
“But here's the thing about that: the reason why she's where she is is because of decisions made in Washington, D.C. One of those was to go to war in Iran,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton said Trump’s Republican predecessors, Ronald Reagan and the Bushes, faced the same situation with Iran but chose not to go to war.
“We know the immediate cost of this. It's not just the $42 billion that we spent for the direct cost of our military being there. It is the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. It is the cost of gasoline,” he said.
“If you're a farmer, you've gone from $3.40 a gallon for diesel to $6.40 a gallon for diesel, just since this past January.”
Hamilton said tariffs and higher gasoline costs for transportation have raised prices on everything, calling it a “hidden tax.”
“Roger Marshall says, ‘Oh, we cut, you know, Kansas taxes by $2,000 a month.’ Great, you added $3,000 a month in expenses due to the war and due to the tariffs."
Tariffs
Hamilton said there is a place for tariffs in foreign policy, but in the last year Trump has made 57 tariff changes.
“They don't happen with the president carefully working with his advisers to figure out this is where we need to protect jobs. It's the president is irritated in the middle of the night, and there's a tariff announced,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton gave the example of the tariffs on Canada.
“We export $4 billion worth of goods from Kansas to Canada. We are the U.S. headquarters of Bombardier. I mean, this is an important trading partner, and what we've done is insult them,” he said.
Health care
Hamilton also challenged his opponent Roger Marshall on health care.
He criticized Marshall’s support of Affordable Care Act subsidy cuts, which Hamilton said left 60,000 people in Kansas without insurance because they could no longer afford it.
He also criticized the Republicans for cutting $1 trillion from Medicaid.
“The president in Dallas said he would bribe Americans with $5,000 if they would vote for Republicans, and the cost of that was going to be a trillion dollars.
“Now wait, he had a trillion dollars to bribe Americans to vote for Republicans, but he cut the poorest of the poor off of Medicaid for $1 trillion over 10 years. There's something not right. It's just indecent. It's not moral,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton also took a page from ads running against his opponent, who worked as an OBGYN before entering Congress.
“Some doctors apparently choose to sue those patients, 700 of them in Kansas, for not making their payments, and then sometimes they have them arrested,” Hamilton said of Marshall’s alleged collection practices.
“And what's really not right about it is you understand the issue of poverty and health care, and then you go to Washington, D.C., and you vote to take it away from people. That's not normal. It's not decent,” Hamilton said.
Although Hamilton criticized his opponent, he said he hoped to bring people together to serve the people.
“My bus says in big letters on the side, leading from the middle, which is what I'm trying to do, not as thank you for what you said, not as a weak, mushy middle of the road, but as a determined effort at trying to bring people together on both sides, because that's the only way we can solve our big problems here in America,” he said.
Hamilton gave the example of Republican Sen. Bob Dole and Democratic Sen. George McGovern, who worked together to establish the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which supports low-income families.
ICE
After the campaign rally, the Hays Post asked Hamilton about the recent ICE raids in southwest Kansas.
“So I think what's happened with ICE is they've been politicized and militarized, and that was not their original intention,” he said. “And so I support their original mission.
“I support tactics that are humane and decent and kind. Right now they're scaring people. I believe that it's not their intention, but they're being used this way that are harming people, and it's harming our businesses too.”
Hamilton said the ICE tactics have hurt the ag industry because workers are scared to come to work.
He said he also did not approve of ICE quotas, which he compared to the detention of Asian Americans during World War II.
Energy policy
“Clearly, our No. 1, you know, our largest source of power in Kansas today is [the] wind turbine. But we need oil, we need natural gas, we need all of it. I think having all of that together is what's going to be our strength here in Kansas,” Hamilton said.
LGBTQ rights“I believe in treating people humanely. I believe that we're supposed to love our neighbors. We love ourselves. I don't think we're supposed to pick on small groups or minority groups and bully them and use them as political issues. And that's what I think is happening today,” Hamilton said.
Separation of church and state
Hamilton is the pastor of the church of about 24,000 people in Kansas City.
Although Hamilton has spent 38 years as a pastor, he said he wishes to represent people of all faiths, and those who do not believe at all.
“The First Amendment says the state will not establish a religion, but instead everyone has the freedom to practice religion in whatever form that takes,” Hamilton said. “And if you have no religion, then that's OK too. I am fighting for the rights of all people.”
Working across the aisle
Hamilton said he is excited to meet Republicans at his rallies and wants to work with Republicans in the Senate.
“I want to work with Jerry Moran. I want us to work together—the Democratic side of the aisle. Jerry Moran working the Republican side, and us working together to model for the rest of America what it looks like to have Republicans and Democrats serving their people and working for the good, the common good of our people,” he said.