Brent Welder

Jim Thompson with Bernie and Alexandria in WichitaHillary Clinton didn't campaign in Kansas. 427,005 people voted for her there anyway (36%). She won the Kansas City area-- Douglas County 31,195 (62.28%) to 14,688 (29.32%) and Wyandotte County 30,146 (61.80%) to 15,806 (32.40%) in landslides and did well enough in Johnson and Shawnee, respectively 129,852 (44.76%) to 137,490 (47.40%) and 33,926 (44.99%) to 35,934 (47.65%).

Teachers with Guns by Nancy OhanianOn the extreme right, the Freedom Caucus has decided they can replace Ryan with neo-fascist Mark Meadows (R-NC) as Speaker and they are doing everything they can to undermine Ryan and bolster Meadows. Mainstream conservatives have their own problems with the incompetent and ineffectual Ryan and are also eager for him to announce his retirement and move on.

Ever notice that corrupt conservatives always seem to support payday lender schemes while progressives fight against them? As soon as Trump appointed Mick Mulvaney acting head of the CFPB-- the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau-- one of his first moves was to stop protecting consumers from predators in the payday lending world.

McCain and Romney both won in KS-03, the Kansas congressional district that includes all of the Kansas part of Kansas City, all of suburban Johnson and Wyandotte counties and part of rural Miami County. Last year, though, Trump lost (narrowly), 47.2% to 46.0%. The DCCC ran one of their GOP-lite candidates, Jay Sidie, and he lost in a rout-- 51.3% to 40.6%, underperforming even Hillary. Maybe they could have figured out he was the wrong candidate when they saw how well Bernie did in Kansas against Hillary. Bernie won every district in the state and he won KS-03 62.1% to 37.9%.