To the editor:

After the Kansas State Fair debate where Roger Marshall was interrupted by boos and choruses of “shame on you” and “you don’t live here” for 90 minutes, Washington sent Vice President JD Vance to try to bolster his campaign by actually questioning Adam Hamilton’s faith. You can’t make this stuff up. The response? Over 120 ministers pushing back on the baseless attacks on Adam and the United Methodist Church.

Now, Marshall is regurgitating a discredited lie to smear Adam Hamilton. Sadly, we’ve become too accustomed to chaos, corruption and lies, but just because it isn’t surprising doesn’t mean that it isn’t despicable and unacceptable.

Kansans face historic inflation and rising costs. A projected 63,000 don’t have health insurance who did 18 months ago, and the number of farms that closed in Kansas last year hit 700, according to federal statistics. There’s no end in sight, just empty promises.

The president threatened Bombardier, headquartered in Wichita, threatening around 1,500 high-paying Kansas jobs. He crippled the farm markets with unwarranted tariffs, imported hundreds of thousands of metric tons of subsidized foreign beef right when cattle farmers were going to sell, putting countless Kansas farms in financial peril. All under Marshall’s watch and approval.

This is just part of the high cost of Roger Marshall — but maybe worse is that of our integrity and dignity as a people.

Kansans deserve better than a senator lying to distract from the real issues hurting Kansans. We deserve leaders who are accountable, honest, hard-working and actually represent Kansas values in Washington, D.C.

James Otten,

Lawrence