Kansas congressional race first in nation since Trump’s win

Your current subscription does not provide access to this content.

Click on the “Listen” button above to hear this interview. You have now viewed your allowance of free articles.

Kansas Republicans control both U.S. Senate seats, all four House districts and the governor’s mansion and have massive majorities in the state House and Senate.

The race to fill the House seat left vacant by Mike Pompeo, who left to become Trump’s Central Intelligence Agency director, has drawn an unusual amount of attention from national party leaders for a race in a traditionally red state.

The entirety of Kansas is considered a “ruby red” stronghold for the GOP, and many credited Donald Trump’s win in November to the support he received in rural districts like the Kansas 4th. It also is home to the state’s largest city of Wichita, where battered aircraft manufacturing plants have shed hundreds of well-paying, blue-collar jobs. But if Thompson would win, that’s one less vote for Republicans whenever they try to pass something like tax reform or health care.

Estes, the state treasurer, brought in $312,000 from the beginning of the year until March 22, according to his pre-special election report.

“Dark money is not reported”, said Kansas Republican Party executive director Clayton Barker, and is “spent in a way to avoid the trigger to report or to disclose the organization behind it”, he said in an email response. “Our country needs help”. “It is probably too soon to look for Trump voters to turn against him in this kind of race”. He said he and his wife, Crystal, voted for Republican Ron Estes “just to support Trump”. Despite the district’s clear conservative tilt and the Republican candidate’s higher name recognition, often important in a low-turnout special election, the GOP found itself panicking.

While a lot of the language on his website has a conservative bent – he affirms his belief in the second amendment and his desire to fight for the rural way of life – he uses strong pro-LGBT language, talks about climate change, and is endorsed by the local Planned Parenthood. The call was going to “tens of thousands” of people, the party said on Twitter.

Democratic strategists say Thompson has likely been able to narrow the gap with Estes because of, not despite, the lack of investment from the national party. “And now the liberal activists are trying to steal this election, by supporting a Bernie Sanders-backed lawyer”, Estes continues with swamp images flashing on the screen.

What national Republicans are hoping their spending and attention over the last week will yield is a clear victory for Estes that will tamp down any sort of momentum Democrats are hoping to build heading into Georgia. Instead, they have largely sat out this election, leaving Thompson to fend for himself against Estes. And one way to see these elections is it gives us some kind of idea as to the popularity of the Trump administration and to the kind of excitement that’s being generated on both sides by this very interesting time in American politics.

“It is not just our district or state that needs to be concerned about this election”.

The Democratic National Committee also recorded last-minute robocalls, and on Tuesday morning, party Chairman Tom Perez urged Democratic voters to go to the polls, tweeting a link to Thompson’s campaign website.