Who Is Ron Estes, Kansas’ Newest Congressman? (Published 2017)

Ron Estes, the Kansas state treasurer and a Republican, defeated James Thompson, the Democratic candidate, in the first national test of how voters would respond at the ballot box during the Trump presidency. Mr. Estes fills the seat vacated by Mike Pompeo, now the C.I.A. director.

■ Elected state treasurer in 2010 and re-elected in 2014, Mr. Estes oversaw more than $24 billion in public funds, according to his campaign website, which also says that he came in under budget by over $600,000 during his tenure.

■ Mr. Estes, 60, has degrees in civil engineering and business administration and has worked with the aerospace, fossil fuel and information system industries. A fifth-generation Kansan, he spends his weekdays on a family farm in Osage County and his weekends at a house in Wichita.

■ The Wichita Eagle’s editorial board endorsed Mr. Estes, calling him “low key and affable” and noting that he supports a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution; a reduction in corporate and some personal income taxes; and a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, policies the board said aligned “with the values and priorities of many district residents.”

■ During the campaign, Mr. Thompson, a civil rights lawyer, repeatedly tried to tie Mr. Estes to the state’s unpopular Republican governor, Sam Brownback. “Ron Estes is nothing but a Brownback yes-man,” Mr. Thompson wrote on his campaign website. “Gov. Brownback cut our schools, raised taxes on the working class and tanked Kansas’ economy.”

■ Mr. Estes’s victory was aided by a last-minute influx of support from Republicans on the national level, something his Democratic challenger criticized after losing the election. “I’m probably not supposed to say this, but Mr. Estes did not beat us,” Mr. Thompson said. “It took a president of the United States, the vice president, the speaker of the House, a senator coming into our state and a bunch of lies to try to drum up a vote.”