Kansas' Sleeper Special
THE RUN
Kansas’ Sleeper Special
The first special election of Donald Trump’s presidency unfolds on Tuesday.
By David Catanese, Senior Politics Writer | April 11, 2017, at 9:48 a.m.
It's been 22 years since a Democrat last represented Kansas' 4th congressional district, which is dominated by wheat fields and airplane factories around metropolitan Wichita.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, the district's last congressman who resigned his seat in January to become President Donald Trump's CIA Director, won 61 percent of the vote against his Democratic challenger in November. Two years before that, he managed 67 percent. There's not much swing in this seat.
And yet in the shade of a largely overlooked early spring special election, something of a race has unexpectedly come to boil in the heartland. Pompeo's replacement isn't the slam dunk for the GOP that he should be -- and there's open worry about a surprise on Tuesday night.
"I think it's probably going to be closer than expected," says Todd Tiahrt, the former Republican congressman who held the seat prior to Pompeo. "I think you're seeing the Democratic Party more motivated than Republicans. The average guy in the street that's a registered Republican hasn't really engaged in this race."
State Treasurer Ron Estes, the Republican candidate, is neither offensive nor memorable. In interviews and speeches, he pledges to follow in the footsteps of Pompeo, practice conservatism and "make sure that we change Washington" -- boilerplate fare for red terrain such as this.
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https://www.usnews.com/news/the-run/articles/2017-04-11/kansas-special-election-may-be-closer-than-it-should-be?src=usn_run2016
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