US Senator Who Sued 700 Patients Over Unpaid Medical Bills Finally Pays Bakery He Owed for Six Years

Kansas Senator Roger Marshall has settled a six-year-old bill for cookies, brownies and cupcakes, a day after the baker publicly complained that his campaign had never paid her.

Holly Thomas, who owns a bakery in Hutchinson, Kansas, said she supplied about £500 ($678.75) worth of baked goods for Marshall's 2020 primary election watch party and repeatedly chased the campaign without success.

The senator posted proof of a payment on Saturday, saying the campaign had 'no idea how this happened'. The episode has drawn attention because Marshall, a former doctor, sued more than 700 patients over unpaid medical bills.

A Six-Year-Old Invoice

Thomas said the campaign ordered the treats for Marshall's watch party during the 2020 Republican primary, when he was running for the Senate seat he went on to win.

Marshall defeated Kris Kobach in the August 2020 primary and beat Democrat Barbara Bollier in the general election that November.

She said she contacted the campaign several times over the following years and never received a response, CNN reported.

On Friday 9 October 2026, she posted about the unpaid bill on social media and said she would not vote for the senator. 'That experience is why Roger Marshall will never get my vote,' she wrote.

By Saturday, Marshall had responded. He posted a screenshot showing a payment of about £960 ($1,300) and said the campaign had 'no idea how this happened' and had repaid the 2020 bill 'double'.

Thomas confirmed a few hours later that she could 'finally mark the invoice paid', more than six years after the watch party.

The payment was slightly less than double the original invoice, which would have come to about £1,000 ($1,357.50). Marshall did not say who on the campaign had settled the account in 2020.

More Than 700 Patients Sued

The bakery dispute landed on a campaign already under pressure over Marshall's record as a physician.

A New York Times investigation published on 8 September found that Marshall, a former obstetrician-gynaecologist in Kansas, filed suits against more than 700 patients over unpaid bills, the Boston Globe reported in its account of the findings.

According to the Times's analysis of Kansas court records, patients were arrested in 81 cases for missing court dates, and some had their wages or bank accounts garnished.

About half of the suits were filed in Marshall's own name and half under his practice, Heartland Regional OBGYN. Most were filed in Barton County, in central Kansas.

The debts ranged from several thousand dollars to as little as about £75 ($101). The patient contracts reviewed by the Times carried an annual interest rate of 18 per cent.

Joe Vasquez and his wife were sued over a bill of about £3,370 ($4,561) for an emergency hysterectomy. The couple were arrested and spent two days in jail over Easter weekend in 2007. Kellie Clutts was sued in 2015 over a postpartum bill of about £95 ($129), and her bank account was later garnished.

Marshall's Defence

Marshall's office has rejected suggestions that he treated patients unfairly. His spokesperson, Payton Fuller, said he had 'spent decades caring for patients regardless of their ability to pay'.

'Judges issue warrants when people repeatedly miss court dates, not doctors,' Fuller said. Marshall's lawyer, Steven Johnson, said the senator was not involved in decisions on warrants or garnishments. Johnson acknowledged that Marshall had set the 18 per cent interest rate.

Neale Mahoney, a Stanford economist who has studied medical debt litigation, described Marshall's record to the Times as 'an extreme case'.

Sarah Kliff, the Times reporter behind the investigation, said: 'It appears that Senator Marshall used the more aggressive tactics to recoup his outstanding debts,' KMUW reported.

Marshall stopped practising medicine after winning election to the House of Representatives in 2016 and moved to the Senate in 2021. In 2025, he introduced the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, a healthcare price-transparency bill that includes restrictions on certain debt-collection actions.

A Tight Race in Kansas

Marshall faces Democrat Adam Hamilton, a pastor from Leawood, in the 3 November midterm elections.

Hamilton founded the Church of the Resurrection, one of the largest United Methodist congregations in the US. Kansas has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since 1932.

A New York Times/Siena poll showed the two men tied at 45 per cent among likely voters, CNN reported.

Democrats have used the Times investigation in campaign advertisements, and the bakery bill offered critics a fresh contrast.

Marshall pursued patients through the courts over debts as small as £75 ($101), while his campaign left a small business unpaid for six years until the owner went public.

Marshall's public explanation for the six-year delay was that the campaign had 'no idea how this happened'.

Thomas's complaint, posted on Friday, was resolved within a day after the campaign went public, after years of unanswered requests. Voters in Kansas will deliver their verdict on Marshall on 3 November.