Kansas' 4th congressional district
| Kansas's 4th congressional district | |
|---|---|
Kansas's 4th Congressional District – since January 3, 2013.
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| Current Representative | Ron Estes (R–Wichita) |
| Distribution |
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| Population (2000) | 672,101 |
| Median income | $40,917 |
| Ethnicity |
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| Cook PVI | R+15 |
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 and surrounding areas.
The Kansas 4th Congressional District is historically a strongly Republican district, almost exclusively represented, over the last half century, by Republicans—with the sole exception of a popular moderate Democrat, Dan Glickman (who lost his bid for re-election to a 10th term in 1994).
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, which has since gone to conservative, anti-abortion Republicans, 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 8%.
Since the 1980s (and peaking with the 1991 Summer of Mercy protests), the District's major city, Wichita (where most 4th District voters reside), is often referred to in national media as the center, or "ground zero," of the nation's anti-abortion movement -- a primary factor that Glickman has credited for his defeat, -- and which has remained a major influence in 4th District politics, with all three of Glickman's successors (Todd Tiahrt, Mike Pompeo and Ron Estes) claiming strong anti-abortion views. In the 2017 Special Election to fill Pompeo's vacated seat, a critical factor in Estes' unusually narrow victory over the Democrat (James Thompson) was a string of last-minute ads tying Thompson to his strong pro-choice stand on abortion.
In 2012, a feud between conservative and moderate Republicans in the Kansas Legislature stymied progress on mandatory decennial redistricting (boundary changes to reflect new demographic data from the 10-year Census). With elections approaching, the federal courts intervened and drew the district boundaries, shifting the Fourth District westward, into more conservative territory.
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