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.
Physician career In 1998, Marshall and eight other doctors opened Great Bend Regional Medical Center in Great Bend, Kansas, where he worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist. From 1998 to 2012 he was owner and 2013 to 2019 co-owner of Heartland Regional OBGYN.
Marshall charged patients an 18% annual interest rate on medical debt, and Marshall and Heartland Regional sued more than 700 patients for bills ranging from $101 to thousands of dollars. At the request of Marshall's lawyers, at least 81 defendants were arrested for not appearing in court.
Marshall served as vice president of the Farmers Bank and Trust, and was 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."911 call featured in Huelskamp campaign ad led to Marshall pleading no contest to misdemeanor in 2008", Hutchinson News, Mary Clarkin, June 20, 2016. Retrieved April 28, 2020. Marshall ultimately pleaded no contest to a reckless driving misdemeanor and settled the neighbor's civil suit.
On August 2, Marshall defeated Huelskamp in the Republican primary, 56% to 44%. No Democrat filed to run in the heavily Republican district.
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.Reps. Mo Brooks, Bradley Byrne at forefront of GOP charge into impeachment room, AL.com, Paul Gattis, October 23, 2019. Retrieved October 30, 2019. Marshall was one of a group of Republicans that followed Gaetz to the hearing room."Whole thing is a sham." Kansas and Missouri Republicans storm impeachment inquiry, Kansas City Star, Bryan Lowry, October 23, 2019. Retrieved August 8, 2020. Marshall called the impeachment inquiry a "sham" and contended that "the people of Kansas are sick and tired of these impeachment hearings."
Committee assignments
Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Commodity Exchanges, Energy, and Credit Subcommittee on Nutrition Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on Oversight Subcommittee on Research and Technology Committee on Small Business Subcommittee on Health and Technology Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce
U.S. Senate Marshall was sworn into office on January 3, 2021.
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 allyAstead W. Herndon & Katie Glueck, Kris Kobach Loses Kansas Senate Primary, Easing Republican Worries, The New York Times, August 4, 2020. known for his far-right views.Nathaniel Rakich & Geoffrey Skelley, What You Need To Know About Today's Elections In Kansas, Michigan And Missouri, FiveThirtyEight (August 4, 2020). Senate Republican leaders, fearing that Kobach's nomination would endanger their majority in the Senate, urged Trump to endorse Marshall; Trump did not. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Kansas Farm Bureau and several anti-abortion organizations supported Marshall. The National Republican Senatorial Committee launched a major voter contact effort ("Operation Scorched Prairie") on Marshall's behalf making 2.3 million unique voter contacts via text and robocalls in the week before the election.
The rival campaigns and outside groups (super PACs) spent millions in attack ads; the primary was anticipated to be close, but Marshall ultimately won by 14.2 percentage points with 40.3% of the vote, although the second-place finisher (Kobach) and third-place finisher (Kansas City based plumber Bob Hamilton) combined for a higher total.Geography and money will be key as Marshall and Bollier vie for Senate seat in Kansas, Wichita Eagle, Bryan Lowry and Jonathan Shorman, August 5, 2020. Retrieved August 6, 2020. 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 the general election, Marshall defeated Democratic State Senator Barbara Bollier 53% to 42%, with the Libertarian Jason Buckley receiving 5%. (subscription required) 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.Sunnivie Brydum, Antigay Kansas Rep. Won't Be Returning to Congress, The Advocate (August 3, 2016).Curtis Tate, Tea party Rep. Tim Huelskamp heading to defeat in Kansas Republican primary, McClatchy DC (August 2, 2016). In 2020, he called for overturning Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled abortion bans unconstitutional.
In 2022, shortly after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs case, Marshall endorsed exceptions to abortion bans that would permit abortion to preserve the mother's life. During a Senate committee hearing, he said: "women with miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies will be treated in every state without exception. Life of the mom will continue to be honored.""There are no pro-abortion rights OB-GYNs in Congress. These candidates are hoping to change that," June 22, 2024, NBC News, retrieved March 2, 2025
Marshall has used his former occupation as an obstetrician/gynecologist as a credential in his expressions of opposition to abortion.Marshall, Roger: "OPINION: Kansas made a saddening choice on abortion. But our work for mothers and babies continues," August 4, 2022, USA Today, retrieved March 2, 2025Marshall, Roger: "U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall supporting Value Them Both amendment," July 21, 2022, Hutchinson Post, retrieved March 2, 2025
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."