Kansas's 4th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Kansas. Based in the south central part of the state, the district encompasses the city of Wichita, the largest city in Kansas, three universities, Arkansas City, and the State of Kansas's only national airport.
The 4th congressional district is historically a strongly Republican district,[3][4][5][6] almost exclusively represented, over the last half century, by Republicans—with the sole exception of moderate Democrat Dan Glickman, who lost his bid for re-election to a 10th term in 1994.[6][7]
As of mid-April 2017 (following a special election to fill the district seat left vacant by Mike Pompeo's resignation to become CIA Director), no other Democrat has won election to the Congressional seat lost by Glickman,[8] which has since gone to conservative, anti-abortion Republicans,[5][9][10][11] routinely, by a roughly two-to-one margin in subsequent races—with the exception of the April 11, 2017 special election, in which Democrat James Thompson managed to narrow the gap with Republican victor Ron Estes to only 6.2%.[12][13]
^Associated Press, "Republicans survive election scare, win Kansas House seat" KSN-W TV News, Kansas State Network, Wichita, Kansas; Published: April 11, 2017, 11:40 am; Updated: April 12, 2017, 12:04 am (NOTE: The date and time posted by AP/KSN for original publication precedes, by several hours, the closing of the polls, raising questions about the origins of this article, reporting the outcome of this relatively close election), retrieved April 12, 2017