A Republican who lost his primary bid against Sen. Roger Marshall has endorsed the Democrat trying to unseat him in Kansas, a crossover move Democrats hope will chip away at a long GOP hold.

Arch Naramore never held elected office. He still mounted a primary challenge earlier this year to first-term Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, then lost when Marshall comfortably defeated him in August. On Thursday, Naramore released a YouTube video backing Democrat Adam Hamilton, The Hill reported.

Hamilton, senior pastor of the Church of the Resurrection, shared the endorsement video on X and cast it as proof of broad discontent. Naramore took more than 20 percent of the primary vote, enough to claim a base of dissatisfied Republicans but not enough to win.

Naramore said he has “always” been a Republican and that a “lot of Republicans agreed” somebody had to take on the senator. His criticism of Marshall centered on farm and tax policy.

"Roger Marshall went along with tariffs that hurt Kansas farmers. He voted to give billions of dollars in tax breaks to data centers,"

Naramore said in the video. He called Hamilton “not a politician” who “will fight for all of us: Republicans, Democrats and independents.”

Hamilton amplified the message on X: “Kansans of every political party agree: Roger Marshall isn’t getting the job done.” The Democrat is trying to become the first member of his party to win a Kansas Senate race since former Sen. George McGill in 1932.

Former Republican governor already crossed over

Naramore is not the first Republican name Hamilton has collected. Last week, former Kansas Gov. Bill Graves, a Republican, endorsed the Democrat and appeared in a video Hamilton also shared on X.

"For the last six years, Senator Roger Marshall has turned his back on Kansas,"

Graves said. He added that it is “time” for voters to “do something different.” Cross-party recruitment of this kind has shown up elsewhere as candidates try to blunt partisan edges, including when Hobbs tapped a former Republican mayor for an Arizona ticket.

The Hill reached out to a Marshall campaign spokesperson for comment. No response was quoted.

Marshall still holds the edge in Kansas

Ratings and forecasting still favor the incumbent. The Cook Political Report rates the race as a “lean” in Marshall’s favor, even after shifting the contest to the left on Wednesday. Decision Desk HQ, The Hill’s polling partner, gave Hamilton a 23 percent chance of winning as of Wednesday.

Those numbers matter in a midterm map where safe seats can suddenly look contested. Republican senators have already sounded alarms as the battleground expands into once-safe territory. Kansas has not been a Democratic Senate pickup in generations, and a 23 percent chance still leaves Marshall the clear favorite.

Naramore’s attack on data-center tax breaks also sits inside a larger national fight over energy and tech infrastructure. Separate from this race, even some Democrats have broken with their party on related issues, as when Fetterman backed Trump on AI data centers and called resistance a gift to China.

Primary defeat, then a general-election pivot

The sequence is straightforward. Naramore challenged Marshall, lost in August with more than 20 percent of the vote, then endorsed the Democrat in a Thursday YouTube video. Hamilton packaged that video with Graves’s earlier endorsement and pushed both on X.

Party-line crossings draw attention because they scramble expected loyalties. Similar dynamics have played out when Fetterman turned to a Republican ally amid pressure from his own side. In Kansas, the practical question is whether a defeated primary challenger and a former governor can move enough Republican voters to overcome nearly a century without a Democratic Senate win.

Hamilton still has to close a large gap by November. Marshall already cleared his primary with room to spare. Cook’s lean rating and the Decision Desk HQ odds both leave the incumbent ahead, even after the Wednesday shift toward a more competitive frame.

GOP strategists watching 2026 are focused on holding and expanding majorities, not on gift-wrapping seats for Democrats. Messaging fights over socialism, spending, and growth remain central to that project, including efforts like the one where Johnson bets an anti-socialism message can flip blue seats and grow the House majority.

Naramore framed his endorsement as fidelity to farmers and taxpayers. Marshall’s campaign has not answered the charge in the reporting. Kansas voters will settle the argument in November, not on YouTube.

Primary losers do not get a redo in the general. Kansas Republicans already chose Marshall once this cycle, and Democrats still need far more than a pair of crossover videos to reverse 90 years of Senate results.