The just concluded Kansas special election, held to fill the seat left by Mike Pompeo’s departure to become the CIA MFWIC, was much closer than it should have been, with the Republican Ron Estes winning by a narrower margin than originally expected.  Yet the Republican won, and the Democrat James Thompson lost despite the national effort (albeit a lackluster one) by the national Progressive-Democratic Party to get Thompson elected.

The just concluded Georgia special election first round (the nominal winner had to get 50% plus one vote of the total count to win outright, otherwise the top two go to a runoff) had the Democrat Jon Ossoff getting 48% of the vote and the Republican Karen Handel getting a skosh under 20%.  Yet the Democrat failed to win outright, despite a now far more enthusiastic national Progressive-Democratic Party push and more than $8 million of Progressive-Democratic monies, most from out-of-state, pouring in to this district-level by-election, and the Republican, who also competed against 10 other Republican first-round candidates (as did Ossoff also run against 4 other Democrats and 2 Independents), finished a solid, if diluted, second and remains the favorite to win the one-on-one final round.

These results should stand as warnings for both parties.

In addition to getting their party back together (or recognizing that the nation now has three prominent political parties, the Progressive-Democratic Party, the Republican Party, and the Freedom Caucus of No), Republicans have to guard against complacency.  The Progressive-Democrats, on the other hand, must guard against giving up; instead they must develop policies of actual value to Americans instead of the We Know What’s Good For You plots they’ve been pushing.