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Democrat James Thompson has jumped out to a more than 5,600 vote lead early in the returns in the House special election in Kansas.

The early vote in Sedgewick County:

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Results are coming in from Sedgwick and Barber counties with Thompson’s lead at 62%-37%.

Here is are the early results from Barber County:

Early results from Butler County:

Edwards County:

Complete results from Pawnee County:

Update: 8:58 PM ET: Thompson leads Estes 60%-38%.

Update: 9:04 PM ET Thompson leads Estes 55%-43%

Update: 9:28 PM ET: Thompson leads Estes 53%-45%

Update: 9:35 PM ET Thompson leads 51%-48% with half the estimated vote remaining to be counted.

Update: 9:41 PM ET: Thompson leads Estes 50%-49%.

Update: 10:01 PM ET: Estes has jumped ahead of Thompson 50%-48%.

Update: 10:05 PM ET Estes leads Thompson 51%-48

Update: 10:16 PM ET: The race has been called for Republican Estes 52%-46%.

Update: 10:48 PM ET: even though the race has been called, the margin has narrowed to 50%-49% Estes.

Update: With 90.3% of the vote in, the margin is 52%-47% in favor of Republican Estes.

MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki explained:

Big early vote for Dems in Sedgwick County in KS-4 — 5,663-vote edge (61-36%)https://t.co/vZq6abYE6u — Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) April 12, 2017

Fwiw, the Dem nominee in KS-4 last November got 81k votes total while losing big. Thompson has 14k in the early count in Sedgwick County. — Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) April 12, 2017

Also, Sedgwick (Wichita) accounted for 68% of all votes in KS-4 in the last election — Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) April 12, 2017

More from Steve Kornacki:

Pace starting to pick up — Thompson (D) lead down to 3,796 (54-44%) over Estes (R) in KS-4 — Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) April 12, 2017

Good news for Estes (R) in KS-4 — same-day vote in Butler pushing him up to 61% there with more to come, closer to the 69% Pompeo got in 16 — Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) April 12, 2017

Harry Enten of 538 explains why Estes is likely to win:

In every county that has fully reported (and they are mostly rural), Estes is running ahead of where he needs to be to win district wide. — (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) April 12, 2017

KS-4 is a district that went for Trump by 27 points. Democrats are not expected to win this seat, but it looks like Republicans may have been right to be worried, as this contest could be much closer than anyone expected.

(This page will be updated, so please refresh for latest results.)