Trump Takes the Salina Stage for His 30th and Final Rally: 'Pretend I'm on the Ballot'
President Donald Trump closed his 2026 midterm rally schedule in Salina on Sunday night, telling Kansas voters to pretend he was on the ballot, making the case for Sen. Roger Marshall, and attacking the Democrat he called a 'woke pastor' - with a running commentary on the Chiefs game the crowd had just watched slip away.
SALINA, Kan. - The last rally of the campaign ended the way the schedule said it would: late, loud and in Kansas. President Donald Trump took the stage at Salina Regional Airport on Sunday night, after Air Force One's arrival was played over the loudspeakers, and told the crowd that Salina was his 30th and final rally of the 2026 midterm election, according to the Topeka Capital-Journal's live coverage of the event.
"I had to come here to make sure that Roger got elected," Trump said of Sen. Roger Marshall, whom he called "one of the most effective people in the Senate." His ask of the crowd was the same one he made in Park City last month: "All I'm asking you to do is one thing: get out and vote because if you do, we're going to have tremendous success. I really want you to pretend I'm on the ballot." Trump won Kansas in all three presidential elections in which he appeared on its ballot.
Much of the speech, the live file reported, was spent attacking Marshall's Democratic opponent, Adam Hamilton, a pastor campaigning as a middle-of-the-road Democrat whom Trump labeled a "woke pastor" and grouped with Texas Senate candidate James Talarico and Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed. "I started reading about (Hamilton) and said, 'He's bad news,'" Trump said. "He would be a disaster. He'll go against guns, and he'll go against every single thing that we all stand for."
The president also acknowledged the other event Salina had been watching. Rallygoers had followed the Kansas City Chiefs' game against Denver on the big screen - Marshall had given a score update from the stage when Kansas City led - and the Chiefs lost 28-24 after Denver stopped them in the red zone. "That was a nasty ending wasn't it," Trump said, before praising coach Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce. His campaigning is not quite finished: USA TODAY reported Sunday that he will deliver remarks at the Reflecting Pool in Washington on Monday, the day before voters decide control of Congress.
