2017 Kansas's 4th congressional district special election

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Kansas's 4th congressional district
Turnout	28.9%[1]
Nominee Ron Estes James Thompson Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 64,044 56,435 Percentage 52.2% 46.0%
Results by county Estes   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90% Thompson   50–60%
U.S. Representative before election Mike Pompeo Republican Elected U.S. Representative Ron Estes Republican

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v t e

Aspecial election was held on April 11, 2017, to determine the member of theUnited States House of Representatives forKansas's 4th congressional district after the incumbent,Mike Pompeo, resigned because of his nomination byPresidentDonald Trump asDirector of the Central Intelligence Agency. RepublicanRon Estes received 52.2% of the vote and won, while runner-up DemocratJames Thompson lost with 46% of the vote.

Kansas's 4th congressional district is located in the south-center region of the state, centering on the city ofWichita andSedgwick County, which contain approximately two-thirds of the district's voters.^[2][3] Sixteen other counties make up the rest of the district, includingBarber,Butler,Chautauqua,Comanche,Cowley,Edwards,Elk,Greenwood,Harper,Harvey,Kingman,Kiowa,Pratt,Stafford, andSumner counties, as well as a portion of southwesternPawnee County.^[4] Regarded as a conservative district,^[5] the seat is considered to besafe for Republicans;^{[Note 1]} the Fourth District had aCook Partisan Voting Index of R+15 following the2016 presidential election.^[7] Going into the election, the seat had not been held by a Democrat in more than twenty years, sinceDan Glickman lost his reelection campaign in the1994 midterms.^[8] At the time of the special election, the Republican Party held about a 2-to-1 advantage in voter registration in the district, with 186,850 registered Republicans to 95,788 registered Democrats.^[9][10] RepublicanDonald Trump won the district by a 27-point margin in the 2016 presidential election, receiving 60% of the vote to DemocratHillary Clinton's 33%. RepublicanMitt Romney defeated DemocratBarack Obama by a similar 26-point marginin 2012, taking approximately 62% of the vote to Obama's 36%.^[11]

On January 23, 2017, theU.S. representative forKansas's 4th congressional district,Mike Pompeo, resigned after being nominated byPresidentDonald Trump asDirector of the Central Intelligence Agency. He was confirmed by theUnited States Senate.Gov.Sam Brownback had five days to declare a special election to be held between 45 and 60 days after being called.^[12] The day following Pompeo's resignation, Brownback declared a special election to take place on April 11.^[13]

Nominees for each party were selected by a district convention of party activists. Independent candidates were eligible to gainballot access upon submitting 3,000 signatures within the first 25 days after the election was called.^[14]

Although not initially expecting a close race, theNational Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spent $100,000 on advertising in the last week of the campaign, and Republican politiciansSen.Ted Cruz ofTexas,PresidentDonald Trump, andVice PresidentMike Pence recordedrobocalls or campaigned in person supporting their nominee Ron Estes.^[15][16] On April 10, theCook Political Report moved the rating of the district to Lean Republican.^[17] Estes won the election by 6.2% over political newcomer James Thompson. This not only marked a dramatic shift from the 61.6%–29.6% margin that Pompeohad been re-elected by in the previous year's regularly scheduled election, but this was also the closest race in the district since incumbentTodd Tiahrt, who held the seat from 1995 to 2011, edged out Democrat Randy Rathburn by 3% in1996.^[18]

The Republican Party selected a nominee at a convention held on February 9, 2017.^[19]

• Ron Estes,State Treasurer^[20][21]

• Joseph Ashby, former radio talk show host^[22]
• George Bruce, attorney^[23]
• Alan Cobb, formerDonald Trumpcampaign staffer^[24]
• Todd Tiahrt, formerU.S. representative^[25]

• Eric Kidwell, attorney^[26]
• Pete Meitzner,Wichitacity councilman^[27][28][29]

• Willis Hartman, businessman^[30]
• Mark Hutton, state representative^[31]
• Mark Kahrs,state representative^[18]
• Ty Masterson,state senator^[27]
• Michael O'Donnell, Sedgwick County commissioner^[27]
• Susan Wagle, president of the state senate^[27][32]

The Democratic Party selected a nominee at a convention held on February 11, 2017.^[19]

• James Thompson, attorney and U.S. Army veteran^[33][34]

• Laura Lombard, entrepreneur^[35][36]
• Dennis McKinney, formerKansas State Treasurer and formerMinority leader of theKansas House of Representatives^[37]
• Robert Tillman, nominee for this seat in 2012 and candidate for this seat in 2016^[27][35]
• Charlie Walker, police officer^[38]

• Kevass Harding, former Wichita School Board member^[19]

• Carl Brewer, formermayor ofWichita^[35]
• Dan Giroux, attorney and nominee for this seat in 2016^[27][30][31]
• Henry Helgerson, state representative^[35]
• Jim Ward, state representative^[35][24]

The Libertarian Party selected a nominee at a convention held on February 11, 2017.^[19]

• Chris Rockhold, educator^[39][40][41]

• Gordon Bakken, candidate for this seat in 2016
• John Kostner, farmer and rancher

TheAssociated Press called the election for Estes while he was leading by 6% with 88% of precincts reporting. The lead was 6.2% when all the votes were tallied.^[45][46]

• List of special elections to the United States House of Representatives
• 2016 United States House of Representatives elections in Kansas
• 2005 Ohio's 2nd congressional district special election

Official campaign websites

• Ron Estes (R) for Congress
• Chris Rockhold (L) for Congress
• James Thompson (D) for CongressArchived January 31, 2017, at theWayback Machine

• April 2017 in the United States
• Special elections to the 115th United States Congress
• United States House of Representatives special elections
• United States House of Representatives elections in Kansas
• 2017 United States House of Representatives elections
• 2017 Kansas elections
• Kansas special elections

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