GOP gets nervous over Kansas race

When it comes to national politics, Kansas is about as red as Dorothy's famous slippers.

Fewer than a handful of Democrats have been elected to the House in the last generation. Voters haven't supported a Democrat for president since 1964.

The last time Kansas sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate was 1932 _ seven years before Dorothy and her transportive footwear showed up in movie theaters.

All of which made it more striking last week when national Republicans dumped nearly $100,000 _ a not-unsubstantial sum by Kansas standards _ into Tuesday's special election to fill a vacant House seat in the Wichita area.

The contest for the seat, which opened up when three-term Republican Mike Pompeo stepped down to head the CIA, was expected to be an easy victory under nominee Ron Estes, the state treasurer.

The fact Republicans feel obliged to conduct a last-minute ad blitz has heartened Democrats and their candidate, attorney James Thompson, even if an upset still seems unlikely. President Donald Trump carried the district 60 percent to 33 percent.

But, as the Cook Political Report noted, special elections tend to be extremely low-turnout affairs, and given Trump's slumping approval and signs of increased Democratic activism, the contest appears more competitive than just a few weeks ago.

On Thursday, the nonpartisan handicappers at the Cook Political Report moved the race from "solid Republican" to "likely Republican."

In a further sign of GOP nervousness, Vice President Mike Pence has recorded a robocall urging Republican voters to the polls, the Washington Examiner reported Friday.

A Democratic upset this week would be particularly sweet for the party and its supporters, coming in the hometown of Koch Industries, the conglomerate owned by the conservative bankrolling Koch brothers.

It would also provide an enormous boost walking up to a special election on April 18 in Georgia, where Democrat Jon Ossoff has raised a stunning $8 million-plus for his campaign to snatch away a Republican-leaning district in the Atlanta suburbs.

The House seat was vacated when GOP Rep. Tom Price resigned to head the Department of Health and Human Services.