Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall tells voters his home is a short hour's drive down a gravel road in Stafford County, but a trail of property records, tax filings and travel receipts shows the Republican built a substantial second life in Sarasota, Florida, even as he ran for reelection as a proud Kansan. The paperwork spans a vacation home purchase, his wife's real estate license, years of official travel reimbursed by taxpayers, and a campaign filing address he changed just days before this report published.
A Sarasota Home With a Disputed Price Tag
According to the Kansas Reflector, Marshall established deeper roots than previously disclosed in Sarasota, where he and his wife, Laina Marshall, bought a vacation home. The Reflector reports the couple bought the Sarasota property for $1.2 million in 2019, while the Kansas City Star reports that a revocable trust purchased the same property for $750,000 in June 2019 — two accounts that diverge on both the buyer and the price. The Star also reports the three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,949-square-foot house is now valued at $1.2 million.
The timing of a separate transaction back in Kansas drew scrutiny too. Per the Reflector, the deed for the Marshalls' Great Bend home was notarized in Sarasota on January 13, 2021. The Star reports that just ten days later, Marshall sold the five-bedroom, four-bathroom Great Bend house where he and his wife raised their children for $415,000, according to the Barton County Appraiser's Office. Marshall's office told the Star he moved to a Kansas cabin once his children left for college.
Licenses, Taxes and a Kansas P.O. Box
Laina Marshall held a Florida real estate license from 2021 to 2023 and currently has an application for another pending, the Reflector reports, and she listed the Florida home as the main address on that application. Roger Marshall himself held Florida fishing licenses since 2019 and, per Florida records cited by the Reflector, kept an active license until May of this year. Meanwhile, the senator has used a P.O. Box in Kansas as both his primary personal mailing address and his official campaign committee's mailing address.
The financial gap between the two properties is stark. The Marshalls paid roughly five times as much in property taxes in Florida as in Kansas during his Senate tenure, the Reflector's review found. The Star reports that the Florida property was appraised at $1.2 million in 2024 — more than eight times the value of Marshall's Kansas cabin and surrounding land — though Sarasota County records now list the combined home and land value at $921,100, down from just under $1.3 million in 2024. Marshall lists a 1,120-square-foot cabin near St. John, Kansas, as his residence, and his voter registration reflects the same address, per the Star.
An Address Change Days Before the Report
Marshall changed the address on his candidate filings from his old Great Bend address to a Stafford County address on September 11, according to the Reflector, just days before this reporting surfaced. Marshall has claimed the rural Stafford County house — a three-bedroom home on more than 300 acres — as his home base, telling the Topeka Capital-Journal, per the Reflector's account, that his home is a short hour's drive down a gravel road. A Marshall campaign spokesperson did not respond to questions about the senator's primary residence, his Florida travel or his wife's real estate dealings.
Fundraisers, Flights and a Boat Lift
Marshall has also used Sarasota as a fundraising hub. He hosted a Sarasota retreat fundraiser tied to his political action committees and the Kansas Republican Party in both 2024 and 2025, and the Star reports that the three-day 2025 version took place at Sarasota's St. Regis Longboat Key Resort in late February, with two Marshall-controlled PACs paying the resort a combined $1,804 in travel-related expenses in the two days that followed. His leadership PAC also spent $261.86 at a Sarasota steakhouse in March 2024, according to Federal Election Commission records cited by the Star.
Official travel piled up alongside the political spending. The Star's review found Marshall took at least 14 official trips through the Sarasota area between 2021 and 2024, costing taxpayers a combined $18,886 — nearly $12,000 in airfare and transportation, more than $6,000 in per diem, and $689 in incidental expenses, with the trips running from July 2021 to July 2024. Marshall's office confirmed the reimbursements but said most of those charges were accrued outside Florida. One flight stood out for its timing: on December 18, 2021, Marshall's office spent $318 on airfare from Washington, D.C., to Sarasota, five days after Marshall signed off on a boat lift installation at the Florida property, the Star reported.
Marshall's Explanation and His Opponent's Response
Marshall has said he used the Sarasota home to visit his grandchildren, who live in the area, and has said the home was struck by two hurricanes and had been uninhabitable for two years before it was mostly rebuilt and listed for $1.45 million. He faces Democrat Rev. Adam Hamilton, a Kansas City-area United Methodist pastor, in the midterm election, and the two appeared together at a Kansas State Fair debate in Hutchinson last Saturday. Hamilton has said he encouraged Marshall to spend time in Florida with his grandchildren, but Marshall has criticized his opponent for owning four homes, including a lakefront vacation property in the Missouri Ozarks that has been in the Hamilton family trust since 2012, plus houses in Lawrence and Kansas City, Kansas. Hamilton is registered to vote in Stilwell, Kansas.
Voters Split on Whether It Matters
Not everyone sees the Florida ties as disqualifying. Stan Gray, 61, said flatly that Marshall is from Kansas, and he and his wife, Janette Gray, 54, said Marshall's time in Florida will not factor into their vote in November. But Tyson Brody argued Marshall's ties to Florida are further evidence the senator has abandoned Kansas and isn't doing his job, adding that Kansans deserve to know what official business cost them roughly $20,000 for what he characterized as routine trips to Marshall's Florida home. The dynamic echoes an earlier chapter in Kansas politics: former Sen. Pat Roberts, whom Marshall replaced in the Senate, was criticized during his 2014 reelection bid for not maintaining a house in Kansas at all, the Star noted.
