A contagion has been spreading through the House Republican caucus. It began with Michigan’s Paul Mitchell, who announced on a Wednesday afternoon two weeks ago that he wouldn’t run for reelection. Texas’ Pete Olson followed suit the next day, and Alabama’s Martha Roby that Friday, and Utah’s Rob Bishop last Monday. It was practically newsworthy on Tuesday when no one retired that day. Then, on Wednesday, Texas’ Mike Conaway said he would also step aside.

The real hammer-stroke came on Thursday, though, when Texas’ Will Hurd joined the exodus. The decision shocked Republicans. The only black Republican in the House, Hurd was often described as a rising star within the party. That star also rested in a precarious sky: His district is the only one along the Mexican border that’s not represented by a Democratic congressman. Its suburbs, once reliable red turf, are steadily turning blue.

All of this is a grim sign for the GOP’s prospects next year. But those departures—especially that of Hurd—also signal the Republican Party’s long-term direction under Trump. His version of the GOP does not aspire to be a big-tent coalition, or even pretend that it wants to be one. What’s left is a demand for ideological purity and unflinching support of the president that alienates a majority of the American electorate. The result will be a Republican Party that’s whiter, more male, and more aligned with Trumpism, no matter the damage it does to the country as a whole—or even the party itself.

Driving this shift is Donald Trump himself. His deep unpopularity among just about everyone but working-class white men is an electoral anchor around the party’s neck, one that even a decade of partisan gerrymandering and voter suppression in red states can’t fully offset. And if past is prologue, Trump is far more likely to double down on what makes him unpopular instead of course-correct to win back voters. Hurd didn’t explicitly cite the president last week, but it’s hard to not read his announcement as an implicit critique of the direction Trump is taking the Republican Party.

As the only African American Republican in the House of Representatives and as a Congressman who represents a 71% Latino district, I’ve taken a conservative message to places that don’t often hear it. Folks in these communities believe in order to solve problems we should empower people not the government, help families move up the economic ladder through free markets not socialism and achieve and maintain peace by being nice with nice guys and tough with tough guys. These Republican ideals resonate with people who don’t think they identify with the Republican Party. Every American should feel they have a home in our party.

A certain amount of retirements every election cycle is normal. Serving in Congress simply isn’t as fun if you’re in the minority party. Some lawmakers also simply decide to leave on their own terms rather than face a likely defeat in November. Conservative and moderate Democrats bolted from Congress at similar levels just before the party lost the House in the 2010 midterms. But this time, the current Republican trend mirrors a deeper shift within the Republican Party away from women, people of color, and diverse suburban communities—in other words, a broad swath of the American electorate that cannot be easily written off.