Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kansas, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 27, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Republican Congressman Kevin Yoder of Kansas is probably breathing a little easier today after seeing the results of Tuesday’s special election in Georgia.

In a suburban Atlanta district that looks remarkably like Yoder’s 3rd District in suburban Kansas City, Republican Karen Handel edged out Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff, 52-48 percent, in what is being described as the most expensive U.S. House race in history.

University of Kansas political science professor Patrick Miller was among those watching the Georgia race because of its obvious parallels to the Kansas 3rd District.

“I think they’re very similar,” Miller said Tuesday afternoon, before the ballots were counted.

Miller noted that both districts have been reliably Republican in recent years. Both are primarily suburban in nature, with highly educated, upper-income, predominantly white voters. But in both districts, Democrat Hillary Clinton fared better than would normally be expected of a Democrat, while Republican Donald Trump fared worse. In fact, Miller noted, Clinton actually edged out Trump in the Kansas 3rd District, while Trump carried the Georgia 6th District by only 1.5 percentage points.

So if there were going to be any political backlash against the GOP as Trump’s approval ratings continue to slide, it would probably show up in districts like the Georgia 6th and the Kansas 3rd.

“There are about 20 congressional districts that Hillary Clinton won that are currently held by Republicans,” Miller said. “If you’re a Democrat looking for a path to a majority (in the U.S. House), it goes through those 20 districts.”

Tuesday night, however, it didn’t go through the Georgia 6th District, which might give Yoder reason for a sigh of relief. He has already drawn a number of challengers for the 2018 race, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, has targeted the Kansas 3rd as a high-priority district next year.

In fact, of the four special elections held so far to fill House seats vacated by people hired in the Trump administration, Republicans have held on to all of them, despite Democrats’ hopes of making gains from an anti-Trump backlash.

The first such race was April 11 in the Kansas 4th District, vacated by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Republican State Treasurer Ron Estes won that seat against an unexpectedly strong challenge from Democrat Jim Thompson, who has announced he will run again in 2018.

On May 25, Democrats hoped to pick up the Montana at-large seat formerly held by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. But Republican Greg Gianforte won the seat against Democrat Rob Quist, despite Gianforte being charged with assault just before the election for slamming a reporter to the ground.

In addition to the Georgia race, South Carolina also had a special election Tuesday to fill the House seat vacated by Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. That race turned out to be unexpectedly close, but still Republican Ralph Norman edged out Democrat Archie Parnell, 51-48 percent.

Clay Barker, executive director of the Kansas Republican Party, said he generally doesn’t look at special elections as predictors of the next round of general elections.

“In a race like that, you always learn a lot about your tactics and techniques, things that work and don’t work. But as far as a bigger picture, predicting 2018, I don’t think there’s a lot to learn,” Barker said. “People can over-analyze it. We’re more than a year out, 15 months, from the election, and the world will be different.”

The DCCC, however, remains optimistic about the Kansas 3rd District, despite what happened in Georgia Tuesday night, and that organization rates the Kansas 3rd as being more competitive for Democrats than the Georgia 6th.

In fact, DCCC chairman Ben Ray Lujan sent out a memo Wednesday, after the Georgia and South Carolina races, saying he still believes Democrats have a chance to win back control of the House next year, despite losing an opportunity in Georgia.

“Last night’s results in Georgia were disappointing – we wanted to win and left everything on the field,” Lujan wrote. “Despite the loss, we have a lot to be proud of. The margin was close in this deep red district, and Jon Ossoff pushed the race to the limit in both the primary and runoff by impressively mobilizing the base and persuading independents and moderate Republicans. We will carry those key lessons forward in order to compete in districts as Republican-leaning as Georgia, and in the dozens and dozens of districts on our battlefield that are much more competitive.”

Among other things, Luján cited an internal poll that showed Trump with a 56 percent negative job approval rating in the Kansas 3rd District, and only a 34 percent positive rating.