Of late, Kirk has ac­ted like an en­dangered blue-state Re­pub­lic­an should: He’s voted against de­fund­ing Planned Par­ent­hood and in fa­vor of tight­er gun-sale re­stric­tions. When Don­ald Trump pro­posed a ban on Muslim im­mig­rants, he spoke out against the pro­pos­al. Time and time again, he’s found ways to dis­tance him­self from the na­tion­al GOP. But he re­mains a heavy un­der­dog. A hand­ful of smart votes haven’t erased the memory of a sum­mer of gaffes or his an­em­ic fun­drais­ing. And he’s still likely to face a po­ten­tially for­mid­able op­pon­ent, Demo­crat­ic Rep. Tammy Duck­worth, in the gen­er­al elec­tion. In our minds, there’s little ques­tion that the first-term sen­at­or’s seat is the most likely to change hands next year.