Voter Guide: U.S. Congressional 4th District candidates for the August primary election
Six candidates have filed to run against U.S. Congressman Ron Estes, a Wichita Republican, in the Wichita-area 4th District — four Democrats, a Republican and a Libertarian.
The 4th District has been a Republican stronghold since the 1994 midterms, the so-called Gingrich Revolution when Republicans flipped 54 seats in the House and eight seats in the Senate. Longtime Democratic incumbent Dan Glickman (1977-1995) lost to Todd Tiahrt (1995-2011).
Estes, who has held the seat since 2017, replaced Republican Mike Pompeo when Trump appointed him director of the CIA. The closest Democrats have come to winning the district was the 2017 special election, where Democratic lawyer James Thompson received nearly 46% of votes to Estes’ nearly 53%.
The 4th District encompasses 16 entire counties in south-central Kansas — Barber, Butler, Chautauqua, Comanche, Cowley, Edwards, Elk, Greenwood, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Kiowa, Pratt, Sedgwick, Stafford and Sumner — and roughly the southern half of Pawnee…