(CNN) Republicans have good reason to be unhappy with some of Tuesday's election results. Democrats took control of the Senate and House of Delegates in Virginia. In Kentucky, a very red state, Democrat Andy Beshear has claimed victory, potentially injecting some blue into the state capital by defeating Gov. Matt Bevin, who is refusing to concede.

State elections are not always seen as relevant to national politics. It is easy to overblow the implications of an election. Experts can easily find a multiplicity of local factors, some related to the particular personality or record of a candidate or about local politics that explain the results on any given day. It is easy to read too much from these kinds of elections; often, when the presidential election takes place, they are quickly forgotten.

Republicans will spend the next few days trying to explain why, if Bevin indeed lost, this was all about Bevin's failings rather than about Trump, and that explains why the strong support of President Donald Trump and other national Republicans couldn't secure a victory.

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