“The Republicans are absolutely panicking,” crowed Chris Pumpelly, Thompson’s spokesman. “They are absolutely supposed to win this seat, but all of a sudden, they’re bringing in all their heavy artillery.”

Officially, Republicans say they’re confident Estes will hold on, but they acknowledge that even in a comfortably red district, they’ve seen a burst of energy from Democratic activists enraged by Trump’s victory and policies and who are looking for the first opportunity—any election at all, really—where they can send a message and fight back.

In Washington, the GOP’s unified government is off to a slow start. In Kansas, Governor Sam Brownback is deeply unpopular with voters across the board. And with next week’s special House election in Georgia garnering the lion’s share of money and attention from the national parties, the GOP doesn’t want to risk an even more shocking upset.

“I know nobody's been paying attention to the race nationally, but nobody's been paying attention to this race in Kansas either,” said one Republican operative, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the party’s level of worry about the race. “The only real concern is an awareness issue, that the base knows there’s an election and that they go to the polls and vote.”

There has been no public polling of the Estes-Thompson matchup—an indication itself of how under-the-radar it has flown. In early voting so far, Democrats have turned out at a higher rate than Republicans, but more Republicans have voted overall. “Special elections have unique turnout dynamics, [so] it makes it hard to predict with confidence what will occur,” said Clayton Barker, executive director of the Kansas GOP. Nonpartisan prognosticators still have Estes favored, but the Cook Political Report moved its rating of the race from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican” on Monday as it became clear Republicans were worried about the outcome.

The GOP operative also hinted at another possible motive for the NRCC’s spending: building party loyalty. House Republican leaders have failed to corral their members into passing a long-promised repeal and replacement of Obamacare, and they’ll need new lawmakers not only to vote for their priorities but to help with fundraising to hold the majority in 2018. The GOP, the operative said, “is looking for ways to continue to get buy-in from members and from candidates. They wanted to show Estes a little love. Once he’s a member of Congress, I think there’s a little goodwill built between he and the committee.”

Democrats in Washington have watched from afar, chuckling at the Republicans’ last-minute maneuvering. Neither the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee nor the party’s House super PAC has spent a dime on the Kansas race; they’re focused on helping the 30-year-old upstart Jon Ossoff win the seat vacated by former Representative Tom Price, the health and human services secretary, and they’re leery of raising expectations in a district they don’t believe is winnable.