堪萨斯州威奇托——亚当·汉密尔顿如果能进入华盛顿，他并不打算在那里呆太久，他也不打算把时间花在调查唐纳德·特朗普总统上。
WICHITA, Kan. — Adam Hamilton doesn’t plan to stay in Washington long if he gets there, and he doesn’t plan to spend his time investigating President Donald Trump.
这位现年62岁的大型教会牧师目前正作为堪萨斯州的民主党人展开一场竞争异常激烈的参议员竞选。他在接受“MS NOW”采访时表示，如果当选，他在参议院的任期将不超过两届。他还表示，对于民主党领袖们已经暗示如果该党赢得国会控制权就会对特朗普及其家人展开的调查，他毫无兴趣。
The 62-year-old megachurch pastor, running a surprisingly competitive Senate campaign as a Democrat in Kansas, told MS NOW he would serve no more than two terms in the chamber if elected. He also said he had no interest in the investigations of Trump and his family that Democratic leaders have signaled they would pursue if their party wins control of Congress.
汉密尔顿在接受“MS NOW”采访时表示：“我不是去华盛顿搞审讯的。我是去华盛顿为堪萨斯州人民奋斗，让他们的生活变得更好。”他补充说，国会必须建立“护栏”，以确保“过去两年或过去12年发生的一些事情不会重演”。这两种立场都是汉密尔顿把自己塑造成一个政治局外人的一部分，并且他打算即使在进入国会山后也保持这种状态。
“I’m not going to Washington to hold trials. I’m going to Washington to fight for the people of Kansas and make life better for them,” Hamilton told MS NOW in an interview, adding that Congress must establish “guardrails” to ensure that “some of the things that have happened in the last two years or in the last 12 years don’t happen again.”Both stances are part of Hamilton’s effort to cast himself as a political outsider, and one who intends to stay that way even after arriving on Capitol Hill.
汉密尔顿赞成任期限制——“众议院、参议院、白宫加起来的服务时间不超过18年”——并表示他会用更严格的标准要求自己，在最多12年后离开国会。
Hamilton favors term limits — “no more than 18 years of service, combined, House, Senate, White House” — and said he would hold himself to a stricter standard, leaving Congress after no more than 12 years.
“我进去的时候就打算干满六年，在这六年里我要尽我所能多做好事，”他向MS NOW表示，“如果你进去的时候脑子里想的是‘我才不在乎能不能连任，我只想为美国人民奋斗、做最正确的事’，那么六年之后我可能就不在那里了，这对我来说也没关系。”
“I’m going in as though I’m going to be there for six years, and I’m going to do all the good I can in those six years,” he told MS NOW. “If you go in and you’re thinking, ‘I don’t care if I get re-elected, I want to fight for the American people and do what’s best,’ I may not be there after six years, and that’s OK with me.”
“如果我觉得自己能带来改变，也许还会有另外六年，”他补充道，“就这样。”
“And if I felt like I could make a difference, maybe there’s six more years,” he added. “That’s it.”
汉密尔顿的无党派竞选主张似乎在一个州引起了共鸣：在该州，只有四分之一的选民是民主党人，且近一个世纪以来未曾选举民主党人进入参议院。在全国上下对共和党不满的浪潮中，民调显示他与现任共和党参议员罗杰·马歇尔（Roger Marshall）展开了激烈的竞争，《库克政治报告》（The Cook Political Report）最近将这场竞选从“大概率属于共和党”调整为“倾向共和党”，距离“胜负难料”仅一步之遥。
Hamilton’s nonpartisan pitch appears to be resonating in a state where only a quarter of voters are Democrats and that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate in almost a century. Amid a national wave of discontent with the GOP, polls show him in a tight race with incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, and the Cook Political Report recently moved the contest from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican,” one notch from “toss-up.”
马歇尔的阵营拒绝接受汉密尔顿是温和派的说法。“汉密尔顿是一个自由派民主党人，他刚被曝光指责自己的教会吃太多牛肉、宣称基督徒很危险——他连一个任期都干不完，更别提两个了，”马歇尔的幕僚长布伦特·罗伯逊（Brent Robertson）在一份声明中表示。
Marshall’s camp rejects the idea that Hamilton is a moderate. “Hamilton is a liberal Democrat who was just exposed for shaming his church for eating too much beef and preaching that Christians are dangerous — he won’t serve one term, let alone two,” Brent Robertson, Marshall’s chief of staff, said in a statement.
汉密尔顿将自己定义为“具有独立思想的民主党人”，并回绝了全国党派领导人，其中包括前副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯。他曾表示，如果哈里斯出现在堪萨斯州为他助选，将会损害他的当选机会。
Hamilton defines himself as an “independent-minded Democrat” and has rebuffed national party leaders, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, who he has said would hurt his election chances if she showed up in Kansas to campaign for him.
“我认为堪萨斯州的人们在寻找那些立场大体处于中间地带的人，”汉密尔顿说。“有一大批人会认为自己是温和派——无论是共和党人还是民主党人。大家的看法是，许多全国性的民主党人物立场比堪萨斯州民众更偏左。”
“I think people in Kansas are looking for folks who are pretty much in the center,” Hamilton said. “There is a large segment of people who would consider themselves moderates — Republicans and Democrats. And the perceptions are that there are a lot of national Democrats who are further to the left than where people in Kansas are.”
他补充道：“这是一个共和党州，是个红州。我认为人们愿意说：‘我会考虑投给民主党人，但我需要知道他们的价值观与我一致，他们的世界观与我吻合’，而这将是那些更接近中间立场的人。”周五晚间，在威奇托郊区伊斯特伯勒一位支持者的前院举行的汉密尔顿竞选集会上，到场人群涵盖了各个政治光谱。接受“MS NOW”采访的每一位选民都提到候选人的中间派立场是支持他的理由。
“It’s a Republican state, it’s a red state,” he added. “I think people are willing to say, ‘I’ll consider voting for a Democrat, but I need to know that they align with my values, they line up with how I see the world,’ and that’s going to be people who are closer to the center.”The crowd at a Hamilton event Friday night, held on a supporter’s front lawn in Eastborough, a Wichita suburb, spanned the political spectrum. Every voter who spoke to MS NOW cited the candidate’s centrist politics as a reason to back him.
“我觉得他能代表所有堪萨斯人发声。他不是去那儿只按党派路线投票的，”57岁的独立选民多恩说，她曾投过两党候选人的票，此时一支蓝草乐队——汉密尔顿的暖场表演——正在台阶脚下弹唱。
“I think he’ll speak to all Kansans. He’s not there to just vote a party line,” said Dawn, 57, an independent who has voted for candidates from both parties, as a bluegrass band, Hamilton’s warm-up act, strummed and sang at the foot of the front steps.
多恩拒绝透露姓氏，她说在当前氛围下无法支持共和党人，而她拒绝接受采访的丈夫“是一位对共和党现状感到沮丧的共和党人”。几英尺外，77岁的共和党人帕姆·哈恩登坐在折叠椅上。她说正考虑投票给汉密尔顿。
Dawn, who declined to give her last name, said she could not support a Republican “in the current atmosphere,” and that her husband, who declined an interview, “is a Republican who is frustrated with the Republican situation.”A few feet away, Pam Harnden, a 77-year-old Republican, sat in a lawn chair. She said she was considering voting for Hamilton.
“我就喜欢他深思熟虑、善于倾听，我认为他在各项议题上会采取更中间的立场，”她说。
“I just like the fact that he’s thoughtful and is a good listener and I think would be more of a centrist position on things,” she said.
汉密尔顿领导着美国最大的联合卫理公会教堂，受益于早已建立的高知名度。多恩和哈恩登都是卫理公会教徒，在他宣布竞选参议员之前就已认识他。
Hamilton, who leads the largest United Methodist church in the United States, benefits from an already high profile. Both Dawn and Harnden are Methodists and knew of him before he announced his Senate bid.
不过，他那些温和的言论也引起了自由主义者辛德拉·惠顿的注意。她在威奇托的一个街头集市上排队购买辣椒时表示，自己倾向于投票给汉密尔顿。
But his moderate message has also caught the attention of Cyndra Whiddon, a libertarian who said she was leaning toward voting for Hamilton as she waited in line for a cup of chili at a Wichita street fair.
惠顿说，她在本月的堪萨斯州立博览会上听到了汉密尔顿和马歇尔辩论的部分内容。“我更喜欢汉密尔顿的唯一原因是：在辩论开始时，他明确表示自己站在中间立场上（即不偏袒任何极端观点）。”
Whiddon said she caught bits and pieces of Hamilton and Marshall’s debate at the Kansas State Fair this month. “The only reason I really like him more than the other is at the beginning, he was very, like, ‘I’m middle of the road,’” she said.
她补充道：“他不是一个被利益集团收买的政客——他的立场还没有被任何势力所左右。”
“He’s not a politician,” she added. “He hasn’t been bought yet.”
（注：文中“red-state”指美国那些政治立场较为保守的州。）
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