In the days leading up to Tuesday’s elections, two narratives were solidifying. One was that the Democrats, as usual, were in disarray. Ralph Northam, Virginia’s moderate lieutenant governor, looked like he was blowing the gubernatorial race against Republican Ed Gillespie. Never the most dynamic campaigner, Northam faced a liberal revolt when he reversed his position on sanctuary cities in the eleventh hour. His poll-averaged lead had shrunk to two-and-a-half points, down from six a month earlier. Meanwhile, his party was in shambles: A new book from former Democratic National Committee Chair Donna Brazile claimed that Hillary Clinton had “rigged” the Democratic primary in 2016, and a poll showed that Democrats’ favorability ratings had hit a 25-year low.

There were also signs that Republicans had figured out a way to capitalize on Donald Trump’s unlikely success in 2016. Gillespie, a former Republican National Committee chair and lobbyist synonymous with the Republican establishment, seemed to have found a playbook that could work for Republican candidates. Gillespie kept his personal distance from Trump, but embraced his underbelly-of-American-politics style. The tax cut that Gillespie ran on in the Republican primaries was out; defending Confederate monuments and attacking the gang MS-13 were in. This combination, which allowed Gillespie to appeal both to suburban voters and to Trump diehards, was considered potentially lethal. Trump may be historically unpopular, but Gillespie had apparently found a way to square the circle.

Welp. Looking at the results from Tuesday’s elections, Republicans should be very, very worried about the future. Northam routed Gillespie. There were other elections, too: In New Jersey, Democrat Phil Murphy won handily, as expected, and Bill de Blasio was re-elected as mayor of New York City. That may not sound surprising, but Democrats haven’t won all three of those races since 1989.

And if you look at the state delegate races in Virginia, it’s clear that Republicans are facing a tidal wave of discontent. Virginia’s House of Delegates was heavily gerrymandered in the GOP’s favor in 2011—Republicans had a 66-34 majority at the start of the night. Virginia Democrats contested every House of Delegates seat and, as of this writing, have a good shot of winning the chamber. Furthermore, Virginia elected its first transgender and first Democratic Socialist assembly members.

Democrats started Tuesday in a fight about what kind of Democrat can win. The answer to that question, judging by Tuesday’s results, is any Democrat.

