Kansas outcome a warning to GOP as Georgia contest nears

The election brought out big GOP leaders in support of Estes in the days ahead of the vote.

More immediately, Kansas’s results will likely rev up progressive momentum in a more high-profile special election coming up in a week outside Atlanta, where 30-year-old Democrat Jon Ossoff is trying to win a majority of the vote against some 16 mostly Republican candidates to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price. The Republican Congressional Campaign Committee dumped $130,000 into the race.

The election even drew Democrats who threw in with Trump last November, such as retired construction worker Alan Branum, 64.

After all the fuss, the national pundits and party officials headed to Georgia and other states holding special congressional elections.

Observers are already looking to a special election for a House seat in Georgia next Tuesday, which has attracted more of the national spotlight and is expected to be very competitive.

Republican Ron Estes won the election by only a seven-point margin after Pompeo’s margin of victory in the fall was 31 points.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Monday made calls to 25,000 households in the district, and while the state party initially rejected the Thompson campaign’s request of $20,000 for a mailer, they relented and gave ,000.

“You have to let these races unfold in their unique milieu and not turn it into a partisan proxy war”, Russell said.

Gov. Brownback will appoint a replacement state treasurer as Estes heads to Washington, D.C. All statewide offices will be on the 2018 ballot. Yes, it was certainly a referendum on Donald Trump.

“The pundits were talking about – this wasn’t a seat we were going to win”, Estes told cheering supporters, The New York Times reported.

Chris Pumpelly, a spokesman for his campaign, said Thompson would run for the seat again in 2018. Democrat James Thompson kisses his wife Lisa while their daughter Liberty stands to their left at the Murdock Theatre in Wichita, Kan., Tuesday, April, 11, 2017.

Republicans have represented the district since Todd Tiahrt unseated veteran Democratic Rep. Dan Glickman in 1994. A tally Tuesday morning showed more than 12,600 donors to Thompson.

Congressional elections are zero-sum affairs: candidates vie for a seat, the victor earns the opportunity to serve, and the loser gets nothing. The Republican’s margin was just under 6,500 votes.

But there were 150,000 more votes cast in the district in 2016 than this special election.

Trump says “Ron Estes is running TODAY for Congress in the Great State of Kansas. A wonderful guy, I need his help on Healthcare & Tax Cuts (Reform)”, Trump tweeted. GOP-sponsored robocalls featured urgent get-out-the-vote messages by Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Sen.

Still, Speaker Ryan expressed his congratulations to Estes on his victory.

The race had been closely watched nationally for signs of a backlash against Republicans or waning support from Trump voters in a reliably GOP district.

Trump won 60 percent of the vote in the the 17-county district in south-central Kansas that includes the state’s largest city, Wichita. “Ossoff wins and suddenly every Republican in a swing district is going to be nervous and they will demonstrate their independence”. Ted Cruz of Texas campaigned for him. “And we knew they would show up, and they did show up”.