WICHITA, Kansas \u2014 Roger Marshall was running behind.<\/p>\n

The bus Kansas Republicans booked for a five-day barnstorming tour sat idling Tuesday morning, with other statewide candidates onboard. The tour was already a few minutes delayed as state party chair Danedri Herbert awaited word from the senator who some Republicans grumble isn\u2019t campaigning hard enough as polls show him tied or trailing<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Finally, she got word: Marshall would ride separately.<\/p>\n

As the bus reached its first stop in rural Newton, Marshall crept aboard \u2014 and was spotted by reporters<\/u><\/a> doing so. He then joined the other candidates exiting to greet the crowd like he’d been there the whole time.<\/p>\n

Marshall is playing catch-up as he races to avoid becoming the first person to lose a Senate contest to a Democrat in the state in nearly a century. He faces the most serious challenger for a Kansas senator in over a decade as his party stares down a grim environment under President Donald Trump’s second term.<\/p>\n

National Republicans are pouring millions into the state to prop him up; national Democrats are responding in kind, and Democrat Adam Hamilton, a well-known United Methodist pastor, is suddenly flush with cash<\/u><\/a> for the campaign\u2019s homestretch.<\/p>\n

But some Republicans think it\u2019s already too late for Marshall.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took it way too much for granted,\u201d said former Kansas Gov. Mike Hayden, a Republican who supported Marshall\u2019s previous campaigns but is now publicly backing Hamilton. \u201cHe’s been almost invisible, except on national television. And there’s not a lot of love in Kansas for Washington D.C.\u201d<\/p>\n

National Republicans have privately urged Marshall to take his race more seriously on numerous occasions, according to a person familiar with the conversations who was granted anonymity to discuss them. Marshall, this person said, never appeared too worried about the race. Marshall\u2019s latest Federal Election Commission report indicates this may be true. He raised just $866,000 for the third quarter to $9.9 million for Hamilton, and that filing did not appear to include any full-time payments <\/u><\/a>to campaign staff.<\/p>\n

Marshall\u2019s team did not respond to requests for comment on this article.<\/p>\n

One Republican strategist close to the White House, granted anonymity to speak candidly, acknowledged the race is an \u201cuphill battle,\u201d comparing Marshall to an \u201cold athlete who, it takes them a lot longer to warm up to get ready for the game time, and they didn’t start that early enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

That strategist said that the remaining undecided voters are overwhelmingly Trump voters, and predicted they\u2019d come home. Kansans \u201care mad at Republicans, but they just hate Democrats more,\u201d the strategist said. \u201cAs much as DC Republicans are bedwetting, the ones actually working on the races are cognizant of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the race nears the homestretch, a deluge of bad press has dogged the senator: His campaign used pictures of a Kansas campground without permission<\/u><\/a> and had to edit the ad; his team faces accusations of blurring the line<\/u><\/a> between his official and campaign offices; his campaign reportedly didn\u2019t pay a bill to a local bakery for six years<\/u><\/a> until after the unpaid debt was made public (he apologized<\/u><\/a>).<\/p>\n

Two other stories landed the hardest.<\/p>\n