A senator paid ‘twice’ his six-year-old bakery bill. But the math isn’t adding up

Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas says he has finally settled a six-year-old bakery bill, but the $1,300 payment he made has left people questioning his claim that he paid double what he owed.

The controversy began after Holly Thomas, owner of Holly’s Sweet Treats in Hutchinson, Kansas, publicly called out Marshall’s 2020 Senate campaign for allegedly failing to pay for cookies and other baked goods ordered for an election watch party. Thomas said she spent nearly a year trying to collect the money through phone calls and emails, but never received payment. The original invoice totaled $678.75, according to The Guardian.

Thomas brought the issue back into public view in a Facebook post, explaining that the unpaid bill had been particularly difficult for her business because it was still new and the COVID-19 pandemic was putting financial pressure on small businesses. Her account gained traction online, prompting Marshall to respond and share a screenshot of his payment to the bakery.

In a post on X, Marshall said his team had no idea how the unpaid bill had happened, adding that they had contacted the business to apologize once the issue came to their attention. He also claimed that the campaign had repaid the bill “double.” However, the amount shown on the payment receipt did not quite match that description.

The numbers behind Marshall’s ‘double’ payment

The original bill was $678.75. Doubling that amount would bring the total to $1,357.50, but Marshall’s payment was only $1,300 — leaving a difference of $57.50.

The payment was still $621.25 more than the original invoice, but it fell short of the exact amount required to double the bill. The discrepancy quickly became a talking point online, with users questioning how the senator’s stated repayment matched the receipt he shared, as disputes over discrepancies between expected and actual charges have also surfaced in other viral stories.

The calculation becomes more complicated when interest enters the picture. Some social media users argued that the bakery should have received more money because of the six-year delay.  Some commenters calculated the debt at more than $1,400 using 18% simple annual interest over six years. 

Why the unpaid bill is drawing more scrutiny

Belonging to disputes that drag for years, this case has attracted additional attention because of previous reporting about Marshall’s medical practice and its efforts to collect unpaid debts from patients. In September, The New York Times reported that the practice had pursued hundreds of patients over unpaid medical bills, with some cases involving relatively small amounts. 

The contrast has fueled online criticism, particularly because Thomas said she repeatedly tried to collect the bakery’s payment before making her complaint public. Marshall has said he was unaware of the outstanding bill until the controversy surfaced, while Thomas subsequently acknowledged that the payment had arrived.

“Better late than never, right?” Thomas wrote in a follow-up post, confirming that the invoice could finally be marked paid.

For now, the original bill has been settled, but the arithmetic remains straightforward: $678.75 multiplied by two is $1,357.50, not $1,300. Whether the discrepancy reflects a simple miscalculation or something else has not been established. The payment receipt, however, leaves one question that is much harder to dispute: the amount described as double was not quite double.

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