Kansas Dem who lost House race: Party shouldn't write off red-state elections

The Democrat who barely lost in Kansas’s special House election Tuesday says his party can’t neglect races in deep-red districts.

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Civil rights attorney James Thompson barely lost to Republican Ron Estes in Tuesday’s special election. Estes was expected to rom in a district that President Trump carried by 27 points, But Thompson came surprisingly close, losing by less than seven points.

“Whether it’s likely we win or unlikely we win, we need to be fighting each and every race,” Thompson told ThinkProgress in a Wednesday interview. “As I’ve shown here, just because something is designated safe [for Republicans] doesn’t mean it is.”

The GOP poured resources into the race in its final days, as fears grew that Thompson was keeping it close. Trump recorded a robocall for Estes, and Sen. Ted CruzRafael (Ted) Edward CruzSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote The Hill’s Morning Report – Trump’s public standing sags after Floyd protests GOP senators introduce resolution opposing calls to defund the police MORE (R-Texas) stumped for him in the district.

Thompson said that national Democrats like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) should be conducting polls in every race, like Republicans do, as a litmus test of the party’s chances in various races.

“The Republicans have shown that they give full effort in every race and that’s what DCCC needs to be doing as well.”

The DCCC largely stayed out of the race, but in the final two days of the race, they helped with making 25,000 live calls to encourage voter turnout.

“It would have been nice to have seen more involvement and seen them reacting as quickly as the Republicans did,” Thompson said.

“I just don’t want them to write off red states just because they looked at some poll from last year’s race where somebody won by 30 points. They need to be looking at the candidates and they need to be looking at the issues.”

Thompson said he’s feeling hopeful about the other special elections, like next week’s highly anticipated race in Georgia’s 6th District to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, where Democrat Jon Ossoff is looking to win outright in the April 18 “jungle primary.” There will also be a special election next month for the Montana House seat vacated by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

“I think Ossoff will take it and rightfully so,” he said. “We need to be out fighting every single race. With Ossoff coming up, we need to be focused on that. We need to be focused on Montana.”