A special election was held on April 11, 2017, to determine the member of the United States House of Representatives for Kansas's 4th congressional district after the incumbent, Mike Pompeo, was nominated by President Donald Trump as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and confirmed by the United States Senate.
>Republicans are worried Trumps low apporval ratings will elect a democrat in the district for the first time in 20 years >Trump won KS-4 by 31 points
James Thompson (Democratic) 59.9% Ron Estes (Republican) 38.5% 4% reporting now.
Can Dems hold their lead?
Owen Lopez
Do we know what precincts are reporting? Are they all in Wichita? It would be pretty ridiculous if Republicans lost this seat.
Levi Allen
So far >Pawnee >Barber >Butler >Sedgwick
Lots to come still, but this lead is pretty interesting.
Also shout out to the retards on this board not realizing this election could foreshadow the midterm election in 2018.
Jose Cox
Reps already have 40%. Looks like they are going to end up holding the seat
Jace Martin
Anything less than a 20-point win for Republicans in such a red district is an embarrassment, given that Trump won by 27.
For Democrats to actually *win* the seat would be an utterly ludicrous upset.
Dominic Stewart
If Dems actually win this seat, that's a full-on happening.
If they get within 10 points, that foreshadows Georgia 6 going blue.
Leo Sanders
James Thompson (Democratic) 58.0% Ron Estes (Republican) 40.4%
12% Reporting
My guess is they barely hold.
Blake Reyes
41.6% now
Hunter Nguyen
Get in here people. This is an actual election for a House seat. It's a bigger deal than arguing about who is white.
Josiah Thomas
43.1% for the Republican
Caleb Reyes
Bernie bros taking over the dem party and purging the Hillary shills. New deal 2.0 coming, get on board cucks
Christopher Adams
Estes catching up as election day vote coming in
Logan Fisher
Lead shrinking greatly
Colton Foster
...
Dylan Baker
44.1% I wouldn't get you or your neogaf buddies hopes up
Tyler Bell
Bumping out of interest. in a shill thread some anons were talking about turnout and it seems like Estes is going to win; there are a lot of rural and suburban retards whose votes haven't been counted.
Ryan Nelson
Yeah looks like Estes will pull it out, Rural counties are swinging hard for him.
Jeremiah Carter
Christ it's like you people don't realize democrats start strong.
Grayson Perez
Literally every expert thought Estes would win, the question was if he'd win by more than 20 or not. Trump won the district by 27%
Zachary Morris
My gf voted for Thompson, Sup Forums. What do? Is it time to put her down?
Robert Stewart
Losing isnt strong
Jackson Wood
That's not universal rule, it just depends on what part of a state/district is counted first. Hillary started ahead in PA because Philly is counted first, Trump started ahead in VA because Northern Virginia came in last.
Either way, the GOP will win this district much less than the 40% margin from 2016. This is the same thing that happened with special elections in 2009 and 2010, with Republicans winning Ted Kennedy's former Senate seat.
Robert Rivera
Some dipshit in another thread told me that only rural and suburban retards vote early lmao
Juan Wright
This. The urban areas are always reporting first for some reason >Texas >blue >FUCK LONE STAR BEER REEEEEEE
Lucas Baker
This is also true, opposition parties do well in midterms/specials
Carter Lee
Should republicans be worried about the other special elections in Montana and Georgia considering how close this 'safe' seat is?
Aaron Barnes
Trump and Bannon need to get their shit together and campaign...
Jacob Gray
The fact that Democrats are even in the same universe as winning Kansas 4 should be a major warning for Georgia 6 (and 2018 generally?).
DNC spent 0 money or energy here. If it's close, expect a lot of leftist grumbling about Democrats blowing the race.
Ayden Richardson
Yep. Trump is going to be a lame duck. He fucked the Republicans BIG TIME!
James Lopez
Montana not so much, I knew a guy who worked for the campaign there and he didn't have anything positive to say about whats happening on the ground there. Georgia on the other hand could swing D.
Isaiah King
I don't know about Montana that well, but Republicans should've been very worried about Georgia yesterday. They're getting slaughtered in early vote (which isn't all that unusual, but still).
Bentley Peterson
Depends. Estes by all accounts ran a weak campaign up until earlier this week and is associated ideologically with Kansas' very unpopular governor.
Regardless of how the results come out, tonight will be an object lesson in never, EVER being complacent with campaigning.
Owen Diaz
...
Luis Stewart
Well I can't argue with those digits senpai
Asher Hill
Who seriously wastes their time on a special election with write ins?
Julian Peterson
Absolutely, with how unpopular Trump's presidency has been along with the AHCA debacle republicans have been sweating.
Brody Flores
"HEY I WROTE MYSELF IN TEEHEE"
Wyatt Rogers
Montana leans red but votes Democratic all the time; re-elected a liberal Democratic governor last year even as Trump won the state by 20 points. It's definitely at risk.
Henry Jackson
He is probably going to win with near 20%. All your analysis are shit
Elijah Ramirez
Fuck you for beating me
Christian Stewart
Still a 20% swing to the Democrats from last year
Nathan Johnson
Wow Estes is doing so well
James Murphy
Well last year nobody could stand Hilary and this year everyone is already disappointed with Trump or sick of him.
Parker Price
>>Regardless of how the results come out, tonight will be an object lesson in never, EVER being complacent with campaigning
RIP Martha Coakley, who somehow managed to lose as a Democrat in fucking Massachusetts by being too cool to campaign, thus ending all chance of Obamacare having a public option.
Ethan Bell
Soros et al are going to throw gorillians at elections like these at the midterms. Going to get ugly.
Carson Evans
>Shills trying to hold out by shitposting in a Kansas special election thread that the Republicans are going to win by 20%
Evan Mitchell
Fuck off nigger.
Henry Garcia
The dude could just be a dick. We voted in a Democrat as our representative in the state house here because his Republican opponent had become so complacent he would get drunk and yell at people in bars every Saturday.
Jaxson Lewis
god voting machines not working
Jack Long
>120693387 Welp everyone go home. You heard the shill.
Austin Peterson
Nice good to see this thread, I was afraid no one was going to pay attention to this.
Tyler Collins
Nate Cohn and 538's Harry Enten both basically calling it for Estes.
Parker Rodriguez
Faggots we're talking this up all day like Dems were going to take it and it was all over come 2018.
Ethan Robinson
Bitch If they're ahead by only 20% it's a bad sign for other more competitive districts considering in this district it should be almost 30% ahead normally.
Jordan Ross
>502 Bad Gateway D-did we kill it
Grayson Green
half the districts reporting and its neck and neck. so excited for the dems :) would be such a huge win!!!!
Owen Martin
Estes finally pulls into the lead
Gavin Roberts
>Bitch If they're ahead by only 20% it's a bad sign for other more competitive districts considering in this district it should be almost 30% ahead normally.
Well I mean if you run a shit campaign and make yourself an ideological fellow-traveller to one of the most hated governors in America like Estes, sure.
Remember that all politics is ultimately local.
Aiden Morgan
Estes takes the lead
Zachary Allen
Dems ahead by about 200 with about half the count done. Lol. This makes me nostalgic for the murder of 2016.
Colton Wright
checked em
Kevin Smith
Noice.
Adrian Richardson
True, True. But is still wouldn't be a good sign for elections to come if it does happen it would show dems that there is blood in the water.
Elijah Hill
>Magical numbers amphibian.jpg There will never be another 2016 will there guys?
Carter Hughes
honestly the damage to the reds is already done. Narrative is already set... "What if the DNC actually backed this race!!" "Congress will be blue!!!"
Jace Lewis
Or it will be a sign for the Republicans to get their asses in gear and pass an infrastructure bill, the wall, and an Obamacare replacement.
Andrew Roberts
Now that the Republican is going to win I feel bad for the Democrat.
Ian Richardson
That would be good too I hope they do all that regardless.
Liam Jackson
DNC should have backed the race honestly. RNC even jumped in at the last minute to support their candidate, DNC just ignored the race like it didn't exist.
Ian Gutierrez
Be happy the DNC is still inept and the Neo liberals kept Ellison from taking over.
This election is horrible news for the Republicans and Trump even if they hold on. The fact they couldn't just call the race when the polls closed and we are watching this come down to thousands of votes is damning.
This district is as solid red as you can get with Trump and the Republican rep winning it by 30+ points. The democrats ran a first time candidate who's previous job I assume from his looks was to be a Jonah Goldberg look alike. And the Democratic Party left him for dead refusing to even give him $20k for fliers.
The Republicans ran the Kansas state treasurer who has won his position multiple times and had Trump, Pence and Cruz all campaigning for him.
Freedom Caucus will scuttle the infrastructure bill, the wall and Obamacare overall. Any outreach Trump makes to the dems will not cause any current dem voters to switch over. And if Trump is stupid enough to just outright repeal Obamacare, the fallout would at worst, gift the House to the Democrats and at catastrophic worst, give control to the senate to them even though they have such a ridiculously higher amount of seats to defend. It's basically up to the democrats to lose, which they're masters of.
Joshua Gonzalez
>Freedom Caucus will scuttle the infrastructure bill, the wall and Obamacare overall
What is their point then? To do nothing? I understand why the obstructed Obama but they should be able to produce something. The infrastructure bill should be easy to pass.
they are now working to destroy the Trump presidency on behalf of the koch brothers. If Trump has nothing to show in 2020 its going to be a tough re-election
Thomas Collins
They're still going to run with this story for months as another demoralization campaign even if the Republicans hold. .
Nathan Stewart
close race for a "safe" seat campaigned for by cruz, trump, and pence against someone who didnt even have dnc support.
Andrew Foster
>on behalf of the koch brothers
Who exactly, which Reps? I know the Koch's didn't give money to Trump but this is the first I've heard about them pulling Soros-tier shit. What exactly don't they like? Wanting to get rid illegals?
Angel Lee
>The infrastructure bill should be easy to pass.
How do you figure that? A big infrastructure bill costs a bunch of money. Republicans generally and the Freedom Caucus specifically are opposed to nearly anything that costs money.
If an infrastructure bill passes, it'll be passed by Democrats and a handful of Republicans. But Democrats have no incentive to give Trump a big win.
Sebastian Wright
they're entire job is to obstruct government and make way for privatization
Jacob Thomas
You could do a one time tax break, like in the Bush administration, for the repatriation of corporate profits overseas. I would think it would need to be higher than the 4.95% rate (close to that) during the Bush admin though.
Matthew Taylor
Kek, Democraps are going to sweep everything. Fucking shit.
Anthony Rogers
And this isn't even a secret conspiracy. The open agenda of the Republican Party is to have as little government spending as possible, military excepted.
Most of Trump's campaign agenda (infrastructure, staying out of wars, replacing Obamacare with a government program that covered everyone) are things Republicans are deeply, traditionally, and quite openly opposed to.
Jayden Harris
Normally politicians are willing to compromise to get at least some of what they want done.
The Freedom Caucus, which is how Republicans now act is to treat politics as zero sum where you you get everything you want, or crash the whole negotiations. Trumpcare is a perfect example of this because Trump and Ryan bent over backwards for them by willing to fuck over millions of people and in the end the Freedom Caucus demanded MORE before saying they wouldn't vote for it and the bill died. They're basically callous sociopaths because they got a concession that would kill people, and it wasn't enough/
It's like if you wrote a highway bill that made all the bridges fall down, the Freedom Caucus would go, ‘Yeah, but that only kills drivers. What about the people at home?”
The fact that just 5 months ago Republicans won the district by 30 points, ran a state famous politician with full backing form the party against a no name first timer who had zero support and it still came down to a single digit is going to be a story.
If anything the liberal wing is going to use this to beat Perez over the head.
Noah Ross
>They're basically callous sociopaths because they got a concession that would kill people, and it wasn't enough
Really gave yourself away there.
Carter Mitchell
...
Jacob Phillips
COME ON, ITS CURRENT YEAR.
Zachary Hughes
>What is their point then? To not be lapdogs to a president willing to shit out an establishment friendly agenda amongst the figleafs thrown towards conservatives while he tries to deal with democrats and progressive Republicans for leftist policy solutions, and have the establishment held to account for the rhetoric by which they--Trump included--appealed to the Republican voter base. Be careful from whom it is you take your political cues from.
>It's like if you wrote a highway bill that made all the bridges fall down, the Freedom Caucus would go, ‘Yeah, but that only kills drivers. What about the people at home?”
>Republican are evil and just want people to die Woah, how familiar.
Eli Scott
demoshits btfo (again)
Carter Robinson
>No longer require health insurance plans to cover 10 essential health benefits. >These are outpatient services, emergency room care, hospitalization, maternity, mental health/substance abuse services, prescription drugs, rehabilitative and habilitative services, lab tests, preventive care such as vaccines, and pediatric vision and dental care. It's like you don't even follow what the Freedom Caucus was given and the ramifications it would have.
Elijah Perez
Democrats BTFO
Christian Diaz
Yeah, but if you do that, then you're still taxing stuff to pay for government programs.
The Freedom Caucus doesn't have minor solvable nitpicks with Trump's agenda, they're ideologically opposed to all of it. They don't WANT an infrastructure bill. There's no way to sell them on the concept.
Meanwhile, a Congressman in a district Trump won by 27 points had a scare of actually losing, and is going to win by way less than he should have. If you're a moderate Republican in a district Trump won with under 50 percent of the vote, how comfortable are you right now signing your name onto anything right-wing enough that the Freedom Caucus is on board.
In both KS-4 and GA-6, Democrats are running about 20 points ahead of what Clinton did.
And what about the Senate? If you're Jeff Flake, who has to defend an Arizona seat he won with 49% of the vote in a state Trump won by 3.5 (and which is getting bluer), this race is probably scaring the shit out of you. You could lose! Maybe you don't want to get too close to Trump after all....
Blake Long
Even if Este won this is a major wake up call to the Republicans because he'll win by 6-7 points in a district that Trump won by 27.
Adam Sanders
winning by a single digit in a state where trump won by 30%.
Dominic Cox
all this hubbub and no ticky.
Benjamin Mitchell
Why u mad tho libfag?
Jack Clark
>then you're still taxing stuff to pay for government programs.
That's how they're paid for unless you want to deficit spend another gorillian or 6.
Joseph Reyes
More people from the Repubclian coalition outside of the Freedom Caucus was against the bill in the end than were inside of it. It's like you have a particular axe to grind against the ideological core of right wing politics.
Blake Miller
Nate Silver's editorials were comically wrong, but 538 was actually the most accurate predictor of the general election. They said that if the polls were even slightly off in Hillary's favor, then Trump would win the EC while losing the popular vote, and there was ~33% chance that would happen. Which is exactly what did happen, when everyone else had Hillary at 99% because they didn't account for the possibility of a systemic poll issue.
Michael Price
You do realize those things were covered by most plans prior to the ACA correct or are you too young to remember that time? The amount of what my plan paid for through work and it's monthly cost got noticeably shittier after the ACA came into enforcement.