Sen. Roger Marshall’s new ad accuses Kansas Dem rival Adam Hamilton of shielding a church volunteer later convicted of child sex crimes, Hamilton’s campaign calls it a desperate smear.

Incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall’s campaign has launched a $1.2 million statewide ad buy that puts Democratic challenger Adam Hamilton’s past as lead pastor under hard scrutiny. The 30-second spot claims Hamilton failed to call police when a church volunteer later convicted of sexual battery was first accused of molesting teenage boys at church camps in the mid-2000s.

The ad began airing this weekend on broadcast, cable, and streaming across Kansas ahead of the Nov. 3 election. RealClearPolitics averages show Marshall leading Hamilton by 1.5 percentage points. Hamilton has served more than three decades as founding and lead pastor of the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood.

The Post reported that the Marshall campaign ad narrator states: “What did Hamilton do when victims reported him to church leaders? Parents were ignored, and Hamilton never called the police.”

The spot continues: “The next fall, Hamilton welcomed him back. Free to lurk for new victims, later convicted of more child sex crimes.” It closes with the line: “Adam Hamilton protected a pedophile. He should never be our senator.”

Victims described ignored warnings and a youth minister who called them liars

Trial testimony later reviewed in court described what two boys said happened at the church’s weekend sleep-away camp. One boy, then 15, testified he felt a hand on his private area in the cabin and saw someone rise and leave quickly when he stirred.

A second boy, then 14, testified the volunteer “came in that night and said that he had an open door policy. And he repeated it multiple times when we tried to shut the door.”

The boys brought their concerns to church leadership the next day. One victim testified that a youth minister accused them of trying to slander Scott Moore’s name and warned of “serious repercussions.” The same victim said the minister “really didn’t take any action to look into this further.”

Cases of clergy and church figures facing child sex charges have drawn national attention in recent years, including a Florida pastor charged with sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy while allegedly hiding his HIV status. Kansas voters are now hearing a political version of that accountability fight in a U.S. Senate race.

On Nov. 7, 2005, parents met with church officials Randy Meyer and Nancy Brown. Hamilton did not attend. A mother later testified she “was never really told the outcome.”

Meyer and Brown investigated the 2005 allegations. Brown served on the church’s sexual ethics committee and had written a training course for United Methodist Church members on handling abuse claims. Neither held state certifications as investigators, and they were not mandatory reporters under Kansas law.

Prosecutors later said church investigators chose not to call police

A November 2011 prosecutors’ filing described the result. “As such, the non-experienced church investigators decided that they were not to report the disclosures to social services or law enforcement,” the filing stated. Teenagers gave “detailed” statements but could not positively identify Moore as the abuser at that time.

Moore returned as a camp counselor in November 2006. Another allegation of inappropriate touching of a 15-year-old followed. The church fired him the next year and referred the matter to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. The county attorney’s office declined to pursue charges.

Jason Gant, who took over as director of student ministries in January 2006, later said church policy underwent an “overhaul” after the second round of claims. “My thought was, the moment this happened, ‘We’re calling the authorities,’” Gant said. “Everything was very above board.”

Similar scandals have ended with severe sentences elsewhere. A Tennessee pastor received a life sentence for raping three girls under eight while his wife helped cover it up. In Kansas, the early church response and delayed referral remain the heart of Marshall’s attack.

Former Hamilton assistant Sue Thompson told the Kansas Reflector that Hamilton did meet with one of the boys and his parents at the time of the allegation. She also said Meyer and Brown were not qualified to investigate the 2005 incidents.

Moore’s later conviction and death keep the record alive

In April 2010, a fourth alleged victim told police about claimed abuse by Moore dating to 1979. Court papers state the man “spoke with the pastor of the church and chose to make a report so the information could be documented.” The filing indicates Hamilton encouraged him to come forward.

About a month later, Moore was accused of inappropriately touching his son’s friend at a sleepover. In 2013 he was convicted of misdemeanor sexual battery. Teenagers from the 2005 and 2006 camp incidents were among those who testified against him. He served less than a year in prison and was released on probation.

In 2015 Moore was found dead in a family member’s home after being caught half-naked in a car backseat with a teenage boy and fleeing. Gant said, “He took his life.”

Public figures in Christian media have faced parallel reckonings. An Alabama Christian podcaster took his own life as deputies arrived to arrest him on child sex charges. Moore’s death closed the criminal chapter but left the political argument over the church’s early handling wide open.

Hamilton denies a cover-up as his campaign hits back

Hamilton told the Kansas Reflector in July there was “no attempt at a cover-up.” He said, “I can just say that our aim was to make sure that if we got anything wrong, we wanted to get it right.” He also said he “absolutely” would handle things differently today.

Hamilton campaign spokesman Tyson Brody called the Marshall ad “a desperate and shameful attack from a losing politician on his own state’s largest Church.” Brody said local reporters already examined the claims during the primary and “found the church reported the incidents to law enforcement, and Adam later personally worked to help get this predator convicted.”

Brody added that Marshall is “resorting to these desperate lies and false attacks because Kansans have learned Roger Marshall had pregnant mothers arrested and jailed, and voted to block the release of the Epstein files.” Those counter-claims appear in the campaign statement; the reporting package does not independently detail them.

How directly Hamilton steered the 2005 internal probe or the 2006 sheriff referral remains unclear in the available record. What is clear is the sequence: camp allegations, an internal inquiry that did not immediately reach police, Moore’s return as counselor, a later firing and referral that produced no charges, a 2013 conviction on a separate 2010 incident, and now a Senate ad that puts the entire timeline before Kansas voters.

Other states have watched pastors fall hard for crimes against children, including a Tennessee traveling pastor sentenced to life for raping a child with his wife convicted of helping. The Kansas race is not a criminal trial. It is a choice about judgment, transparency, and whether early warnings at a large church were treated with the urgency parents expect.

Marshall’s ad forces that record into living rooms in the final stretch. Hamilton’s team insists the church ultimately acted and that the senator is ducking his own record. Voters will decide which failure story they believe before Nov. 3.

Leaders who handle child-protection complaints inside closed rooms instead of open police reports should expect the full timeline to follow them onto the ballot.