Republican Sen. Roger Marshall's 2020 campaign ordered cookies, cupcakes and brownies from a brand-new Kansas bakery for his primary night party. Then it never paid the $678.75 bill.
For six years. Marshall only paid up on Saturday, after the baker's post went viral and his Senate seat started looking shaky.
A Small Business Left Holding the Bill
Holly Thomas owns Holly's Sweet Treats in Hutchinson. In 2020, during COVID, Marshall's campaign ordered 150 custom sugar cookies with his name frosted in blue and yellow, plus cupcakes and fudge brownies.
The invoice was due Sept. 2, 2020. Thomas says she spent nearly a year calling and emailing the campaign for payment. Nobody called back. Nobody paid.
Every dollar mattered to her new business, she wrote. "Six years later, I haven't forgotten." That, she said, is why Marshall will never get her vote.
Paid Only After It Went Viral
Thomas posted the unpaid invoice on Facebook on Thursday. By Saturday, Marshall was on X posting a receipt for $1,300.
He called it "repaid the bill from 2020, double." It was not quite double. Double $678.75 is $1,357.50, as The New York Times noted.
Six years of silence, then a payment within 48 hours of bad press. In a toss-up race, a month before Election Day.
Meanwhile, He Sued 700 of His Patients
Here is why this stings. Before Congress, Marshall was an OB-GYN in Great Bend. A New York Times investigation found he and his practice sued more than 700 former patients over unpaid bills between 1998 and 2019.
Some of those bills were as small as $101. Many were smaller than the cookie bill his own campaign ignored for six years.
His lawyers garnished paychecks and bank accounts. Some collection cases dragged on for over a decade, into his time in Congress.
81 Patients Arrested
Court records show Marshall's attorneys repeatedly asked judges for arrest warrants when patients missed court dates. Eighty-one patients were arrested, with debts as low as $114.
Meischa Zimmerman was arrested three times over a $3,596 bill from her 2009 delivery. The first time, in 2011, she was eight months pregnant and home with her 2-year-old.
Bond money posted by arrested patients was turned over to Marshall by court order.
18% Interest, the Highest in Kansas
Marshall says his collection methods were "very common." The Kansas City Star checked. Of roughly 150 Kansas medical practices whose court records it reviewed, Marshall's 18% annual interest rate was by far the highest.
In a sample of 35 practices that sued patients, none charged more than 10% before a default. Interest helped some patients' bills double. Zimmerman's grew past $7,000.
What Marshall Says
On the bakery, Marshall said his team had no idea how the bill was missed and apologized once they learned of it. Thomas has said the order was placed by a campaign staffer.
On his patients, Marshall's campaign says judges issue warrants, not doctors, and that his hospital provided millions in uncompensated care. His lawyers sent a defamation letter over a Democratic ad featuring Zimmerman, saying she was arrested for missing court, not a payment.
A Senate Seat on the Line
Marshall faces Democrat Rev. Adam Hamilton, who says Marshall must explain why he had patients arrested and jailed over tiny debts. Hamilton's campaign pointed out the cookie bill was bigger than debts Marshall sued patients over.
The race is a dead heat in deep-red Kansas. Hamilton led 48 to 45 in a recent YouGov poll, and the NYT/Siena poll had it essentially tied. Election Day is November 3.
The Bottom Line
Republican Roger Marshall had pregnant patients hauled off in handcuffs over bills smaller than the cookie order his own campaign stiffed a struggling small business on for six years. One set of rules for working Kansans, another for Roger Marshall. He only found his checkbook when the cameras showed up. Kansans can settle this bill on November 3.
Sources: KAKE, The Hill, The New York Times (Sarah Kliff), The Kansas City Star, KCUR, KWCH, The Independent and YouGov.
Typical Rethuglican thief. Note that there were a great many WOMEN who were his patients. Women should not be forced to have male OB/GYN doctors, especially greedy pigs.