Roger Marshall

Roger Wayne Marshall (born August 9, 1960) is an American politician, physician, and former military officer serving as the junior United States senator from Kansas since 2021. From 2017 to 2021, he was the U.S. representative for , a mostly rural district covering much of western and northern Kansas. Marshall is a member of the Republican Party.

An obstetrician, Marshall was first elected to Congress in 2016 after defeating incumbent Tim Huelskamp in the Republican primary. He was reelected in 2018. He ran for U.S. Senate in 2020, winning the Republican primary and general election. He is running for reelection in 2026.

Marshall serves on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry; Finance; Budget; and Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committees.

Early life and education Marshall was born in El Dorado, Kansas. He attended Butler Community College before attending Kansas State University, where he received a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and was a member of Beta Theta Pi. He received his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Kansas. He completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Marshall has served as chairman of the board of Great Bend Regional Hospital and vice president of the Farmers Bank and Trust, and has been a district governor of Rotary International. He also served seven years in the United States Army Reserve, reaching the rank of captain.

U.S. House of Representatives 2016 campaign

Marshall ran against incumbent Tim Huelskamp in the Republican Party primary election for Kansas's 1st congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He had the support of many of Kansas's agricultural groups, who were angry that Huelskamp lost his seat on the House Agriculture Committee, the first time in a century that no Kansan was on that panel. During the primary, Huelskamp's campaign ran TV ads criticizing Marshall for a confrontation with a neighbor in 2008 in connection with a land dispute; the neighbor made a 9-1-1 call accusing Marshall of attempting to run him over with a vehicle. Marshall ultimately pleaded no contest to a reckless driving misdemeanor and settled the neighbor's civil suit.

In the general election, Marshall won handily, defeating independent candidate Alan LaPolice and Libertarian Kerry Burt with 65.9% of the vote.

Marshall was endorsed by the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Kansas Livestock Association, the National Association of Wheat Growers, and the Kansas Farm Bureau, an affiliate of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Marshall represented a district that had long been nicknamed "the Big First" because it covered all or part of 63 counties in central and western Kansas, more than half the state's land mass. It was the seventh-largest district in the nation that did not cover an entire state.

Tenure Marshall was sworn into office on January 3, 2017.

On October 23, 2019, Marshall was part of a group of 15–30 House Republicans, led by Representative Matt Gaetz, who intruded upon that day's confidential hearing of the House Intelligence Committee. The Republican and Democratic committee members were meeting in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) to hear testimony from Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper in connection with the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. Marshall was one of a group of Republicans that followed Gaetz to the hearing room. Marshall called the impeachment inquiry a "sham" and contended that "the people of Kansas are sick and tired of these impeachment hearings."

Elections

2020

In September 2019, Marshall announced he would give up his House seat to run for the Senate seat being vacated by four-term incumbent Pat Roberts. In the Republican primary election, Marshall faced Kris Kobach, a polarizing ex-Kansas Secretary of State and Donald Trump ally known for his far-right views. Senate Republican leaders, fearing that Kobach's nomination would endanger their majority in the Senate, Marshall won all but one county west of Emporia. In Sedgwick County, which contains Wichita, he beat Kobach 47% to 26%. He lost by a majority in Wyandotte County, which contains Kansas City, and by pluralities in most counties in eastern Kansas. In so doing, he continued a long line of former congressmen from the "Big First" subsequently representing Kansas in the Senate; due to its vast size, the district's congressman is usually reckoned as a statewide political figure. He succeeded Roberts, who represented the 1st from 1981 to 1997; Kansas's senior senator, Jerry Moran, represented the district from 1997 to 2011. Tenure In October 2021, Business Insider reported that Marshall had violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012, a federal transparency and conflict-of-interest law, by disclosing up to 17 months late stock purchases made by one of his dependent children.

Committees Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Subcommittee on Conservation, Climate, Forestry, and Natural Resources (chair) Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, Poultry, Local Food Systems, and Food Safety and Security Subcommittee on Food and Nutrition, Specialty Crops, Organics, and Research Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security (chair) Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee on Finance

Political positions Marshall voted in line with Trump's positions 98% of the time.

Abortion Marshall opposes abortion, including in cases of rape and incest. In 2020, he called for overturning Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled abortion bans unconstitutional.

Marshall has used his former occupation as an obstetrician/gynecologist as a credential in his expressions of opposition to abortion.

Agriculture In 2023, Marshall introduced the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act, which sought to prohibit state and local governments from imposing production standards on agricultural goods sold in interstate commerce. The bill was introduced in response to California's Proposition 12, which established animal welfare requirements for pork, veal, and egg products sold in the state, regardless of origin. Marshall argued that such regulations impose burdens on producers and disrupt interstate commerce. Opponents of the EATS Act warned the legislation could undermine efforts to regulate food safety, animal welfare, public health, and environmental standards. The proposal became a key point of contention during negotiations over the 2023 United States farm bill, but it was ultimately not included in the farm bill extension.

Attempt to overturn the 2020 election results Marshall disputed the results of the 2020 presidential election, claiming that in "several states" "governors, secretaries of states and activist courts" usurped legislatures to create voting rules. Therefore, he announced that he would oppose the January 6, 2021, certification of the Electoral College count. He would also call for an electoral commission to investigate "the integrity of the ballot, to hold states accountable to the time proven constitutional system of the Electoral College."

Marshall was participating in the certification of the Electoral College count when Trump supporters stormed the United States Capitol. He blamed "the rioters, vandals, and trespassers" for destroying "any chance we had for peaceful discussion and debate on restoring and ensuring confidence in this and all future elections." He also called for participants to be "prosecuted to the fullest extent."

After the Capitol was secure, Marshall joined the Senate to continue the vote on the certification. Marshall supported the objections to Arizona's and Pennsylvania's electoral votes. The Senate rejected these objections by 93–6 and 92-7 respectively. He called his decision to object to the count "from my heart." Following the vote on certification, Marshall acknowledged that Joe Biden would be president and urged a peaceful transition of power. The McPherson Sentinel editorial board wrote that Marshall "should be ashamed" of his decision to support false claims of voter fraud and trying to overturn the election.

On May 28, 2021, Marshall voted against creating an independent commission to investigate the 2021 United States Capitol attack.

Cannabis Of medical marijuana, Marshall said in 2017, "I'm not convinced that it's medically proven and a good idea... I think there's a path there, but I just haven't seen enough scientific data to say it's a good thing."

COVID-19 pandemic During the COVID-19 pandemic, Marshall has promoted conspiracy theories that falsely suggest that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were inflating coronavirus death numbers. Facebook removed Marshall's posts from its platform as a violation of its rule against "harmful misinformation". Marshall called Facebook's removal of his posts "corporate censorship".

Marshall does not dispute the effectiveness of masks in halting the spread of the coronavirus but he opposes face mask mandates. He has appeared at indoor campaign events without a face mask before maskless crowds who did not observe social distancing.

During the pandemic, Marshall promoted prophylactic use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug Trump promoted, despite its being unproven as an effective treatment and despite government warnings about using it outside research or hospital settings. He said he himself used the drug to proactively guard against the virus.

Health care Marshall supports repealing the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare"). He voted for the American Health Care Act of 2017, which would have repealed and replaced the ACA. In 2020, he continued to campaign on repealing and replacing the ACA.

Marshall opposes Medicaid expansion in Kansas.

In December 2017, Marshall voted for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.

Marshall was among the 31 Senate Republicans who voted against final passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.

Marshall has supported the second Trump administration's tariffs policy.

Foreign policy Citing the "America First" doctrine, Marshall generally favors isolationist, non-charitable foreign policy, but with exceptions for Israel.

While serving in the House, Marshall was among 60 Republicans to vote against condemning Trump's decision to withdraw troops from Syria.

In 2022, Marshall resisted moves to provide foreign aid to Ukraine

Alleging "significant fraud and abuse" in the program and complaining that America is "just taken for granted", Marshall said he had spoken to Musk (and Musk colleague Vivek Ramaswamy) about "problems in the USAID program" and complained that the U.S. is no longer "using it to our advantage". Of the economic impact of the war, he said, "I'm sorry the gas prices are going up, but help is on the way and your national security, yes, is even more important than your pocketbook."

Immigration Marshall supported Trump's Executive Order 13769, which barred citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations from entering the United States. He supports an immigration bill with a pathway to citizenship for people not living in the U.S. legally.

Marshall has insisted that the spending priority in U.S. foreign affairs should be "border security." He and his wife, Laina, have four children.

On January 31, 2018, Marshall was a passenger on a chartered Amtrak train involved in the 2018 Crozet, Virginia, train crash. He administered first aid and CPR to the injured.

Marshall is a non-denominational Protestant.

Marshall owns a vacation home in Sarasota, Florida, valued at $1.2 million.

Electoral history Kansas's 1st congressional district, 2016 Republican primary Party Candidate Votes % Republican Roger Marshall 58,808 56.5% Republican Tim Huelskamp (incumbent) 45,315 43.5% Total 104,123 100% General election Party Candidate Votes % Republican Roger Marshall 166,051 66.2% Independent Alan LaPolice 66,218 26.4% Libertarian Kerry Burt 18,415 7.4% Total 250,684 100%

Kansas's 1st congressional district, 2018 Republican primary Party Candidate Votes % Republican Roger Marshall (incumbent) 64,843 78.7% Republican Nick Reinecker 17,593 21.3% Total 82,436 100% General election Party Candidate Votes % Republican Roger Marshall (incumbent) 153,082 68.1% Democratic Alan LaPolice 71,558 31.9% Total 224,640 100%