Kansas outcome a warning to GOP as Georgia contest nears
WICHITA, Kan. — Republicans pulled out a victory in Kansas in the first of four U.S. House special elections to replace GOP congressmen named to top jobs in President Donald Trump’s administration, but the next contest for a seat in Georgia could be tougher to hold.
The margin of victory Tuesday for Kansas Republican Ron Estes in the 4th District special election slid to only seven percentage points from a 31-point margin in November, when incumbent Mike Pompeo was running before he was appointed Trump’s CIA director.
In a further warning sign for Republicans, Estes narrowly lost the district’s most populous county around the city of Wichita to his Democratic opponent James Thompson, a political newcomer. Trump won that county by 18 points.
The outcome was a shot across the bow of national Republicans as the party faces three more special elections in Georgia, Montana and South Carolina. Republicans now hold a 237-193 majority in the House.