In the first special congressional election since President Trump took office, a Republican candidate won a narrower-than-expected victory in a district Trump easily carried less than six months ago. Thompson opposed Kansas State Treasurer, (R) Ron Estes, for the Kansas 4th Congressional district.
"Estes underperformed Trump's margin by 20.3 points", wrote FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver on Twitter. "I need his help on Healthcare & Tax Cuts (Reform)".
"If Jon Ossoff's fundraising numbers weren't enough of a wakeup call for Republicans, the election results in Kansas should be", said Georgia GOP strategist Chip Lake. The district has been hard hit by the downturn in the agricultural economy and the loss of hundreds of well-paying, blue-collar jobs in aircraft manufacturing plants.
How does Donald Trump address a massive fall off in his support that almost cost the Republicans a seat in one of the reddest of red districts?
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. GOP-sponsored robocalls featured urgent get-out-the-vote messages by Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Sen.
David Carron, a 50-year-old Republican from Belle Plaine, showed up to vote in his Army uniform.
"I would not say this is any kind of referendum on Donald Trump", Kansas Republican Party chairman Kelly Arnold said pre-election. "I finally did. I realized this was important". "You play every game", Pumpelly said. She was especially upset when the Republican governor recently vetoed Medicaid expansion.
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"I can't stand Brownback", she said as she left her polling site in Belle Plaine. Said Mr. Estes: "The pundits were talking about... this wasn't a seat we were going to win, that we were going to lose a Republican seat... that it was a chance for the Democrats". A group that formed following Sanders candidacy, Our Revolution, supported Thompson during the campaign through social media and recruited volunteers to make phone calls on his behalf. Trump said in a tweet Wednesday morning. "Our country needs help".
"The DCCC will continue its longstanding and failed model of helping only most favored candidates until grassroots disgust makes that stance untenable", said Jeff Hauser, a longtime progressive strategist.
Democrats in Washington - at the Democratic National Committee and the DCCC, which is House Democrats' campaign arm - flatly reject the charge that they did anything wrong in Kansas, arguing that involvement from the national party would have been counterproductive and an unwise use of scarce resources. He thinks Trump has been been doing fine so far.
Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee poured $130,000 into the race, and other GOP leaders made a strong push for Estes.
The special election was considered a bellwether of how Republicans might fare in next year's midterm elections, with anti-Trump sentiments among many voters.
Thompson spent the final day of campaigning talking directly to voters.
Reason number one that Republicans are anxious in an era of Trump driven negativity, Ossoff sounds positive, "Fundamentally, my campaign is a positive one about a vision for our local economic development, and about values that bring people in our community together instead of division and fear". "I do think that is significant".
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