You can just feel the love oozing out of almost every sentence in a Politico story about an opposition research dirt digger. The party? Democrat of course. Anyone who is familiar with the over-the-top biases of Politico would know there is no way Politico would ever express love and admiration for a Republican opposition researcher.
The recipient of all this Politico love is one Tyson Brody whose name is heroically invoked in a Friday wet kiss by Kathy Gilsinan, "Kansas Was Supposed to Be Easy for Republicans. Then Tyson Brody Moved Back Home."
And now let us join the Politico admiration society hyping the leftist wonderfulness of their new hero who might, just might, win for them the first Democrat U.S. Senate seat from Kansas in 94 years:
Early in September, a New York Times investigation rocked the Kansas Senate race. The incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, the paper revealed, had sued some 700 patients over his previous, decadeslong career as an obstetrician-gynecologist in rural Kansas; in 81 of the cases, patients had gotten arrested over missed court dates. In an agricultural state already hard-hit by Donald Trump’s tariffs, and in a cycle with affordability as voters’ top issue, the revelation of struggling patients facing legal peril over medical debt — in one case of as little as $101 — changed the map, putting Republicans officially on the defensive in a state that had looked safe only months before.
The story was a coup for the paper and veteran health care reporter Sarah Kliff who, as the paper noted, “reviewed thousands of court records and interviewed eight people whom Roger Marshall sued over medical debt.” But many also suspected a particular hand behind the initial tip: Tyson Brody, a 39-year-old opposition researcher and an alum of both the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns, who moved home to Kansas to work for Marshall’s Democratic challenger, Rev. Adam Hamilton. Brody is “the kind of guy who, forget a skeleton in your closet — he will find every single dust bunny in your closet,” said Caitlin Legacki, a senior fellow at Third Way and a Democratic strategist who has worked with Brody in the past.
Speaking of closets ...and dust bunnies, who knows what dust bunnies are hidden away in the x/twitter closet of @tysonbrody since a plethora of them have been deleted to such an extent that they are even unavailable on the Wayback Machine. Perhaps there is an oppo researcher out there who can dig up whatever dirty "dust bunnies" are floating at the bottom of the Memory Hole that the Democrat oppo research dirt digger might want kept hidden.
...But in the weeks since the story ran, polls have tightened, prognosticators have moved the race toward Democrats (the Cook Political report now rates it a toss-up) and millions of dollars have rushed into what suddenly looks like a battleground on the prairie — in a state so associated with conservativism that Democrats use the book title What’s the Matter With Kansas? as shorthand for benighted farmers voting against what liberals see as their own interests. Giddy Democrats and despondent Republicans alike are contemplating the possibility that Kansas could send a Democrat to the Senate for the first time since 1932. And central to that phenomenon — along with a damaged incumbent and a unique challenger — is the old-fashioned, dark art of oppo research.
Cook rates it as a toss-up? Perhaps on the basis of the fake Wedgewood Polls which reported that the Democrat supported by Tyson Brody, Adam Hamilton, leads the incumbent Republican by two points.
KANSAS POLL by Wedgewood (with leans) SENATE 🟦 Adam Hamilton: 50% 🟥 Roger Marshall (inc): 48% 🟨 Other: 2% —— GOVERNOR 🟥 Ty Masterson: 52% 🟦 Cindy Holscher: 48% @WedgewoodPolls | 9/22-24 | 500 LV https://t.co/hBWFz5RFET https://t.co/sVmcKpbf3p
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) September 24, 2026
Politico hasn't seemed as excited about a poll since the Iowa "Gold Standard" Poll in 2024 which showed Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump by 3 points, "Shock: Gold-standard poll gives Harris slim lead over Trump — in Iowa."
That poll was only off from reality by 16 points but, hey, at least it made Politico as temporarily happy as a Wedgewood Poll about the Kansas Senate race.
Philip Letsou, chief of staff for Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) tweeted this: "Trying to imagine the meltdown we’d be subjected to on here if Politico just openly shouted out GOP oppo guys while linking to hit pieces on Dems."
