Occam's Razor

Republicans had to make an extraordinary 11th-hour investment—including robocalls by Mr. Trump—to hang on to a seat in a deep-red district that Mr. Trump had won in 2016 by 27 points... [More]

Come on; it wasn't exactly a squeaker:

In the end, Estes prevailed with 53 percent to Thompson’s 45 percent. Libertarian candidate Chris Rockhold drew about 2 percent of the vote.

And the answer for why it wasn't a total rout may be simpler than "newly energized liberals," who despite "record efforts" failed to overcome a nice guy who isn't exactly famous for being electrifying:

Burdett A. Loomis, a political science professor at Kansas University, said that in a normal year Mr. Estes wins, but predicted it will be a low turnout affair and that Democrats will have more enthusiasm. “He’s an unexciting candidate,” Mr. Loomis said, alluding to Mr. Estes. “Honestly, he’s a stiff.”

As for the starry-eyed new evangelist in Atlanta that the story in the first link profiles, her One Percenter "man of the people" candidate (backed by the guy who leads House floor sit-ins demanding a state monopoly of violence and the guy who thinks Guam is going to tip over), if he does win, it will have less to do with an indignant galvanized snowflake juggernaut, and more to do with premeditated cultural terraforming (and, based on out-of-state donations, no small amount of Yankee carpetbagging).