U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall meets with constituents at a legislative breakfast hosted by the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce at Grand Overland Station on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. Marshall, who rarely makes scheduled appearances, is facing a reelection challenge from Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Johnson County megachurch pastor.
Dominick Williams
dowilliams@kcstar.com
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall sipped coffee and defended the wisdom of President Donald Trump’s foreign and domestic policies at a legislative breakfast event in Topeka Friday morning.
The Republican incumbent, whose reelection campaign has been thrust into the national spotlight in recent weeks, also found time to reflect on the weight of the job 10 years after voters first sent him to Washington.
“This is very much more like serving in the Army than I expected,” said Marshall, who was a medical officer in the U.S. Army Reserve before starting an OB-GYN practice in Great Bend.
“As a doctor, I could impact thirty, forty, fifty people a day. But today my decisions can impact millions of people,” Marshall said during a casual conversation with Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce President Bob Ross at the Great Overland Station.
Most questions were friendly and business-centric, but Marshall also gave his opinion on several polarizing issues, including federal immigration enforcement, tariffs and the war in Iran.
Iran war
“I spoke with one of our area businesses over the weekend, and they shared that this year started off, the first quarter was strong, and then bombs started to drop and so did our sales,” Ross said. “I think there is a real pressure there.”
Marshall responded in much the same way he has throughout the campaign when asked about the war, by quoting President Dwight Eisenhower.
“I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity,” Marshall quoted.
He also used a few of his own words, describing Iran’s government as an existential threat to U.S. national security.
“I wish the war had never started,” Marshall said. “I’m as anxious as anybody for this war to be over with. But on the other hand, who in the room wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon?”
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall answered a moderator’s questions for about 30 minutes during a Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce Event at Great Overland Station. He also took two audience questions. Dominick Williams dowilliams@kcstar.com ICE raids
Marshall praised the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement, saying the border is secure and Americans are safer than before Trump took office.
But he said he harbors no ill will toward undocumented immigrants who have built lives in Kansas.
“The last five years of my career in Great Bend, half of those moms, half of the babies I delivered, the mom or dad were undocumented,” Marshall said. “Salt of the earth people. Great people.”
He called the immigration system “broken,” saying the seasonal visas that are available to noncitizen workers don’t account for the fact that most Kansas jobs are year-round. He said systemic change won’t be easy.
“It will take a president to make it a priority, and no good deed goes unpunished in Washington,” Marshall said.
He said that when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swept through southwestern Kansas in late September, he personally contacted Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to express his concerns about the lack of coordination with local law enforcement agencies.
“I called Markwayne Mullin and said, ‘Hey, what’s going on here?’ And I don’t want to talk about private conversations. But I had some success, and this chapter’s not closed yet,” Marshall said. “I’ve still got some work to follow up on.”
The Wichita Eagle reported that none of the five people described as “heinous criminals” in a Department of Homeland Security press release about the Kansas ICE operations were actually among the 104 people arrested in the sweep. The press release was updated but not re-sent to media outlets.
U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall has made few pre-announced appearances in Kansas over the last year and a half, citing security concerns. His appearance at a Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce legislative breakfast on Oct. 16, 2026 is an exception. Dominick Williams dowilliams@kcstar.com Tariffs
Marshall also took two questions from audience members during his roughly 30 minutes at the legislative forum. The first was about the demand for affordable housing. The second was about the impact that Trump’s aggressive tariff policies have had on businesses and consumers.
“We’re feeling a lot of crunch because of the tariffs,” said Zachary Surritt, business development director at R&S Maintenance, a manufacturing and industrial maintenance company based in Meriden.
“We were ready to expand and grow right up until about this year when tariffs started hurting not only us but our customers,” Surritt said. “That global demand for some of our customers’ products has declined. Our transportation costs have increased. The cost of living for our employees has increased. So I just want to learn more about why you support the current tariff policy.”
Marshall responded skeptically.
“I think your experience is different than most of the other manufacturing companies that I have talked to,” Marshall said. “Most of them are expanding. How’s your business?”
Surritt said it’s been “slow-going this year,” in part because their food and beverage manufacturing clientele have faced sales declines and seen their products taken off shelves in other countries, leaving less money to spend on capital projects.
“I wish we didn’t have to use tariffs,” Marshall said. “But I’m tired of seeing jobs leave America to go overseas, and that’s exactly what we saw happening. So when China, they’re able to use slave labor — I mean, this is almost a human rights issue for me,” Marshall said.
He specifically defended the trade hostilities that have emerged between the U.S. and Canada, saying the new tariffs are necessary to “level the playing field.”
“Canada’s dumping Chinese aluminum and steel into our country and calling it made in Canada,” Marshall said. “We have to hold those other countries accountable.”
Marshall left out a side door and entered a vehicle that drove off immediately after his remarks concluded. A small group of protesters huddled against the cold outside, waving signs that mocked and condemned Marshall for suing former patients over medical debt and for largely avoiding public appearances over the last year and a half.
Protesters hold signs opposing U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall outside a legislative breakfast at Grand Overland Station in Topeka on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. Dominick Williams dowilliams@kcstar.com
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Matthew Kelly is The Kansas City Star’s Kansas State Government reporter. He previously covered local government for The Wichita Eagle. Kelly holds a political science degree from Wichita State University.