Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, has drawn scrutiny for suing 700 patients for medical debt as an obstetrician-gynecologist. Now, a viral social media post exposed his 2020 campaign for skipping out on a nearly-$700 bill for cookies.
Holly Thomas wrote a Facebook post on Oct. 8 about an unpaid invoice for $678.75 from Marshall's last campaign for 450 treats from her bakery, Holly's Sweet Treats
, in Hutchinson, Kansas."Do you know why I will never vote for Roger Marshall?" Thomas asked in the post, before answering the question with the story of how Marshall's campaign ordered specialty homemade cookies for his 2020 primary election watch party, but her business was never paid.
"For nearly a year, I made repeated attempts to collect payment, reaching
out by phone and email. I never received a return phone call, and the invoice was never paid," Thomas wrote. "Not only was I just starting out, but we were also in the middle of COVID, when small businesses everywhere were struggling just to keep their doors open. Every single dollar mattered."
The post has so far garnered 3,000 likes and 1,500 shares and been picked up in other social media networks and news articles.
"My assumption, perception maybe is that Roger Marshall has let a lot of Kansans down," Thomas told USA TODAY in a phone interview Oct. 10 when asked why the video went viral.
USA TODAY reached out to Marshall's campaign, who did not return a request for comment. On Oct. 9, over six years late, the Marshall campaign paid Thomas $1,300, almost double the amount of the original invoice. A screenshot from Marshall's Facebook shows an American Express card was used to pay the bill.
"We have absolutely no idea how this happened, but rest assured as soon as it became known to us, we immediately attempted to contact the business in order to apologize, and we have repaid the bill from 2020, double," Marshall wrote in his own social media post.
The post adds to Marshall's increasing vulnerability in an unexpectedly competitive Heartland Senate race as Republicans attempt to protect their slim majority in the upper chamber.
Marshall is running against Rev. Adam Hamilton, the Democratic Senate nominee who leads the nation's largest Methodist parish, Resurrection, as senior pastor. Kansas last elected a Democrat in 1932, the longest active Senate losing streak in U.S. history, but the nonpartisan Cook Political Report has rated the race a "toss up," their most competitive ranking, and polls show Hamilton with a slim lead. Kansas is led by Gov. Laura Kelly, a moderate Democrat, but Trump carried the Sunflower State by 16 points in 2024.
The Hamilton campaign has zeroed in on Marshall's past pursuit of patients for unpaid bills, which resulted in 81 arrests, as first reported by The New York Times, releasing a 30-second commercial featuring former Marshall patient Meischa Zimmerman, who recalled her arrest at eight months pregnant for missing a $50 payment.
Marshall's lawyers have disputed Zimmerman's account, alleging defamation and have also requested a cease-and-desist to block the ad's distribution.
The Hamilton campaign seized on Thomas' post.
"Roger Marshall stiffed a local Kansas business who baked cookies for his campaign, refusing to pay a $678 bill - a bill larger than debts for which Roger Marshall had patients sued, arrested, and jailed, which ran as low as $114.49!" Hamilton campaign staffer Tyson Brody wrote on X.
'I let it go'
Holly's Sweet Treats sits in a red brick building on Main Street in Hutchinson, Kansas, a city with a population of 40,000 people. Thomas made 100 fudge brownies, 100 mini strawberry cupcakes and 150 custom sugar cookies – featuring the same yellow and blue logo that Marshall uses to this day – for a primary campaign party Aug. 4, 2020.
She sent an invoice on Aug. 6, 2020, and again on Sept. 16 that year, according to an Intuit QuickBooks screenshot shared by Thomas with USA TODAY. The invoice was sent one additional time on Feb. 18, 2021.
When she was unable to reach her campaign contact, Thomas said she called Marshall's regional office in Garden City. "I just never heard back from anybody so, quite honestly, I let it go and moved on," Thomas told USA TODAY.
Going viral
Then, Thomas changed her mind. After a recent conversation with a friend, she posted about her vow to never vote for Marshall.
"Impulsively the other day I said, 'I'm gonna post about it.' And ... somebody asked if I could make it public to share and I said yes," Thomas told USA TODAY. "So I changed it and I quite honestly did not expect it to go as big as it has gone." Thomas didn't want to disclose whether she planned to vote for Hamilton.
In her post, she said her status about Marshall "isn't about political parties or policy disagreements." But instead, "it's about my personal experience as a small business owner and the importance of honoring financial commitments."
The post included a screen grab of the invoice featuring a QR code, which is seemingly how the Marshall campaign paid, according to Thomas. Marshall's campaign spoke out from his official account in their own Facebook post.
The baker was delivering an order when USA TODAY contacted her Saturday evening. She received numerous phone calls but hadn't had time to check if one was from Marshall. She was busy balancing her kids and business.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Roger Marshall sued patients for unpaid bills, but he stiffed a bakery
