Kansas outcome a warning to GOP as Georgia contest nears

Kansas 4th District congressional candidate Ron Estes, right, and Sen. Ted Cruz who came to Wichita to campaign for Estes the day before a special election speak to the media during a news conference before their rally at Yingling Aviation, Monday, April 10, 2017, in Wichita, Kan. (Fernando Salazar/The Wichita Eagle via AP) Kansas 4th District congressional candidate Ron Estes, right, and Sen. Ted Cruz who came to Wichita to campaign for Estes the day before a special election speak to the media during a news conference before their rally at Yingling Aviation, Monday, April 10, 2017, in Wichita, Kan. (Fernando Salazar/The Wichita Eagle via AP)

By Associated Press April 12, 2017 1 min read

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – Republicans have 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.

The margin of victory Tuesday for Republican Ron Estes in the Kansas 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.

Estes narrowly lost the district’s most populous county around the city of Wichita. Trump won that county by 18 points.

The outcome was a shot across the bow of the national Republicans as the party faces an even more difficult contest on April 18 in Georgia.