Free Republic

What to make of the results of the first two of this spring’s special House elections? Start off by putting them in perspective. They pose a challenge to both political parties, but especially to Republicans, who have been used to an unusually stable partisan alignment, an alignment that has become scrambled by Donald Trump. Those of us who can remember the 1964–84 years have seen much greater partisan churning. Almost half of the congressional districts that voted for Richard Nixon in 1972 elected Democratic congressmen. Some 191 districts split tickets. In 2012, that number was down to 26, the...

As most of you know, last Tuesday the special election was held for the Kansas Congressional seat formerly held by Mike Pompeo, who is now serving in the Trump Administration as CIA Director. My question is: How much money / effort / volunteer time did national Dems put into this race? Now that the race has been won by Republican Ron Estes, albeit by a much slimmer margin than Trump won the district, the Dems are claiming "oh, we knew that was a safe Republican seat, we didn't even try hard." How true is this? Based on what I am...

The special congressional election in Kansas’s fourth congressional district, was, despite the media hype, much ado about — well, maybe not nothing, but very little. The GOP candidate won by 7 percent, a margin that was certainly lower than Trump’s overwhelming victory in the district, but slightly better than Kansas governor Sam Brownback did in the same district in 2014. Given the numerous variables affecting the election (a low-turnout special election, a hugely unpopular governor, a greater-than-average Democratic effort, an un-Trumpian GOP candidate picked at an insiders’ convention rather than in a primary), it is hard to paint that...

The state’s senators and representatives have failed to exempt the University of Kansas Health System from a law that will allow concealed weapons to be carried in the state’s public buildings starting in July. Already, executives are hearing from medical students who say they are hesitant to complete their residency in a place where guns are allowed. Patients say they will go elsewhere for care. Other hospitals, once eager to transfer their charges to the many highly specialized programs in the KU Health System, are warning that such arrangements are likely to slow when guns are permitted.

There is no greater feeling than winning. And for Trump supporters, it is indeed Christmas every day. The pipelines are getting built. Abortionists and their organizations are losing funding. Congress has restored and respected the sovereignty of the several states. It’s safe to purchase and own a fire arm. Neil Gorsuch has been confirmed. The other appointments to Trump’s cabinet are opening a new wave of policy changes and enforcement. However, these winning appointments have exposed an embarrassment of riches. As conservatives move up the chain of command, someone has to take their place. Indeed, like Dorothy Gale reaching the...

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Wednesday that he has obtained his first conviction of a person who illegally voted in a Kansas election without being a U.S. citizen. Kobach, who has advised President Donald Trump on immigration and voter fraud, said that Victor David Garcia Bebek has pleaded guilty to voter fraud. Kobach, a Republican, is the only secretary of state in the country with the authority to prosecute voter fraud. “No matter how many cases we prosecute the political left will always whine that there’s not enough cases to justify protecting our elections in this way,” Kobach...

A woman decapitated her ex-boyfriend’s mother, who came to her home to collect his belongings, police in Kansas said. Rachael Hilyard allegedly began attacking Micki Davis, 63, when she and her grandson dropped by Hilyard’s Wichita home Sunday afternoon, ABC affiliate KAKE News reported. During the assault, the brave little boy managed to grab his grandmother’s cellphone, and took off to call for help. When cops arrived, he directed them to the house. That’s when cops discovered Davis’ decapitated body inside a garage at the property, police said. Hilyard, 35, didn’t get very far. Police found her hiding inside the...

RUSH: The second big story is how the Democrats… Remember we talked about it yesterday. Democrats were gonna take that special election in Kansas. This guy Estes? He was going down. Ron Estes was going down. This is the Mike Pompeo seat. There’s a special election ’cause Trump sent Mike Pompeo to CIA and there’s a special election to replace. The media yesterday was all about, “See? Democrats are gonna win this seat proving that Trump is hated and despised and everybody wants him to go, and his agenda has been pronounced a failure!” Except Estes won. So they’re ignoring...

Upset over Trump’s victory, grassroots Democrats enlist in nationwide efforts to swing special House elections, state contests and mayoral races; Republicans dig in, citing a lack of results so far.

Republicans continued their electoral winning streak on Tuesday night in the first congressional election of the Trump administration. [Snip] Now that the election is over, Democrats are trying to figure out who is to blame for the loss, and Twitter exploded with finger pointing. Some believe that the Democratic national party abandoned the race, while others argue that if the national party got involved, it would have hurt Thompson. Former President Barack Obama's speechwriter Jon Favreau said the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) shouldn't ignore races like the one in Kansas. [Snip] Star Trek actor Wil Wheaton suggested that people...

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...

GOP SURVIVES FIRST TEST Kansas state Treasurer Ron Estes held off a stronger-than-expected challenge from Democratic civil rights attorney James Thompson Tuesday night as the GOP won the first special congressional election since President Trump’s inauguration. Estes won 53 percent of the vote to take the seat vacated by CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

Democratic activists are claiming a moral victory in Kansas despite narrowly losing a special congressional election there Tuesday night. Democrat James Thompson came within 10 points of Republican Kansas State Treasurer Ron Estes in the state's safely GOP 4th congressional district. President Trump carried the district by 27 points in November. Rep. Mike Pompeo, who resigned earlier this year to serve as director of the CIA, won it by 31 points. [Snip] Estes, however, is set to prevail by less than 7 points, a warning sign for the House Republican majority less than 100 days into the Trump administration.

Kansas state Treasurer Ron Estes held off a stronger-than-expected challenge from Democratic civil rights attorney James Thompson Tuesday night as the GOP won the first special congressional election since President Trump's inauguration. The election was held to fill the House seat vacated by CIA Director Mike Pompeo, a former three-term representative of Kansas' 4th district. With 94 percent of the precincts reporting, Estes had won 52 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Thompson. The Republican's margin was just under 6,500 votes. By contrast, Pompeo's narrowest victory, in 2014, was by just under 70,000 votes. The race had been...

Poll results are available there. Ron Estes (Republican) James Thompson (Democratic)

WASHINGTON ― After staying away for much of the race, the Democratic Party came to the aid of James Thompson, the Democrat running to fill the House seat vacated by Donald Trump appointee Mike Pompeo, just before voters went to the polls Tuesday. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Monday began doing live calls to 25,000 households in Kansas’ 4th Congressional District, urging residents to vote in Tuesday’s unexpectedly competitive special election. National Democrats have held off committing their resources to Thompson’s campaign, citing the difficulty of flipping an ultra-conservative district that Trump carried by nearly 30 percentage points in...

Vice President Pence is stepping into Kansas's special House election, recording a robocall urging Republican voters to cast their ballots for the party's congressional nominee on Tuesday, the Washington Examiner reported on Friday. The robocall comes amid shaky support for Kansas State Treasurer Ron Estes, who is running against Democrat James Thompson to fill the House seat vacated by Mike Pompeo, who is now President Trump's CIA director. President Trump won Kansas's 4th District by almost 30 points in November. But Democrats in the district have been energized by the president's low-approval ratings and controversies in his first months in...

Connor Balthazor, 17, was in the middle of study hall when he was called into a meeting with his high school newspaper adviser. A group of reporters and editors from the student newspaper, the Booster Redux at Pittsburg High School in southeastern Kansas, had gathered to talk about Amy Robertson, who was hired as the high school’s head principal on March 6. The student journalists had begun researching Robertson, and quickly found some discrepancies in her education credentials.

Lawmakers in Kansas on Monday failed to override Republican Governor Sam Brownback's veto of a bill expanding eligibility for Medicaid for the poor under the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA). State lawmakers in the Republican-controlled senate voted in favor of the measure last week, just days after President Donald Trump's efforts to repeal and replace the ACA, also known as Obamacare, ended with the bill being pulled from a vote. The Republican-controlled House also voted in favor of the measure, but Brownback quickly vetoed the bill on Thursday. The House took up a debate on overriding the veto that day,...

The Kansas Supreme Court held that courts are independent of the state's executive branch, when ruling on immunity from prosecution for self defense.In the case before the court, the self defense claim was very strong. Immunity from prosecution was granted. The state appealed, arguing that the judge was required to look at the evidence in the way most favorable to the prosecutor's case. From cjonline.com: The state’s highest court rejected a tougher standard set by a lower court for determining when someone can avoid prosecution for wounding or killing another person. The state Court of Appeals had said trial...