GOP pulls out a close win in deep red Kansas

WICHITA, Kan. — Republicans survived an election scare on Tuesday and won a Kansas House seat in the first congressional election since President Donald Trump’s victory, but the margin was much narrower than expected in a district that had voted overwhelmingly for Trump in November.

Republican state Treasurer Ron Estes, 60, will represent the Kansas 4th congressional district replacing Mike Pompeo, who Trump named as CIA director.

Trump won 60 percent of the district’s vote in November and Pompeo won re-election by 31 points. Estes defeated civil rights lawyer James Thompson by only about five percentage points, suggesting some backlash against Republicans since November.

“Republicans nationally should be very worried,” said Bob Beatty, a Washburn University political scientist. “It’s remarkable that Thompson got this close.”

In the waning days of the campaign, Republicans pulled in U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to campaign in Wichita for Estes, and both Vice President Mike Pence and Trump recorded robo calls for him.

A flood of big GOP campaign donations and a last-minute ad buy last week of nearly $100,000 by the National Republican Congressional Committee also signaled GOP nervousness.

Thompson, 46, was a political newcomer backed by Our Revolution, the group that continues the work of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.

Libertarian Chris Rockhold trailed a distant third in the race.