US Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas secured $4.2 million in federal funding for water infrastructure adjacent to his own ranch, drawing fresh accusations of conflict of interest as the project directs water to a nearby national wildlife refuge. Public records show the earmark, requested in 2024, funnels money toward pipeline upgrades and irrigation upgrades intended to boost flows into Quivira National Wildlife Refuge—yet Marshall’s property, Rattlesnake Ranch, sits directly beside the preserve and stands to gain from the arrangement. Ethics analysts say the move breaches norms, especially given the senator’s long‑standing opposition to earmarks, which he has repeatedly labelled wasteful “pork” and un‑American.
The request emerged as Marshall gears up for a November reelection battle. Although Donald Trump carried Kansas by 16 percent and no Democrat has won a Senate seat there since 1932, the race has tightened significantly. Republican-aligned groups are pumping millions into advertising to counter Democrat Adam Hamilton, a former Republican who now leads the nation’s largest United Methodist congregation. Marshall’s office declined repeated requests for comment from The Associated Press, citing the senator’s campaign schedule and refusing to answer detailed questions about his property holdings.
A federal plan, approved last year through broader spending legislation Marshall supported, will pump water from a separate watershed through a pipeline into Rattlesnake Creek—alongside his ranch—before it reaches the refuge. Marshall’s spokesman, Payton Fuller, insisted the allocation would “literally save farms” and “supply water to the refuge in drought years,” adding that “Rattlesnake Ranch would not benefit from it.” Critics disagree. Burke Griggs, a former state water‑rights attorney and law professor at Washburn University in Topeka, noted that steady water is “big business” for Kansas hunters and that any improvement “will increase the value of the land.” “If Quivira doesn’t have water, we don’t have as many ducks and waterfowl staying in that area for hunting season. That would absolutely diminish the property’s value,” Griggs said.
The tension stems from a decades‑old squeeze on water in rural Kansas. Expanding farm operations and severe drought have depleted supplies needed by migratory waterfowl. Under state law, water rights fall under Kansas jurisdiction. In 2023, the Biden administration, through the Fish and Wildlife Service, urged the state to guarantee adequate water for the refuge— a move that would have forced farmers and other users to cut consumption. Marshall and other Kansas elected officials hailed when that plan was withdrawn; they pledged to craft a solution that would aid the preserve without penalising agriculture, a pledge that led directly to the earmark.
Marshall has long framed himself as a guardian of both farmers and the environment. “As a property owner along Rattlesnake Creek for three decades,” he declared at the time, “protecting our local agricultural communities and the environment is something I take very seriously.” Yet his financial disclosures reveal a different picture. Before entering the Senate in 2020, Marshall held full or partial ownership of more than 1,000 acres (405 hectares) near Quivira, which he once called a hunting “mecca.” Those holdings generated steady income through building rentals and oil and gas leases. Since his election, Marshall has trimmed his land portfolio, but Rattlesnake Ranch remains among his current assets, registered as a Kansas business entity and described as commercial property with a rental building. Records show he holds a 20 percent stake and serves as company director.
Marshall’s relationship with the land runs deep. He regularly posts images of game he has killed online, and regional coverage has documented both his conservation work and his hunting of sandhill cranes near the refuge. “I hunt as often as I can,” he told Lone Star Outdoor News in 2022, per a piece on his Senate website. His stance
