CNN political commentator Larry Sabato said Tuesday that the outlook for Democrats is "pretty depressing" in the wake of Democrat Jon Ossoff's failed, expensive bid to flip Georgia's sixth congressional district.

CNN host Don Lemon asked Sabato, who is the director at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, to break down the implications of Ossoff's loss to Republican Karen Handel in the race to replace Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's vacated seat. Democrats hoped for a win to show signs of broader national discontent with President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, but they came up short again.

"The bigger picture to me is that the 2018 congressional elections are a year-and-a-half way, and a million things could happen that can change the picture," Sabato said. "But for Democrats, obviously, it's pretty depressing. That's the word I've seen on Twitter more than any other from Democrats about the result."

Sabato said the lesson to learn from the race for Democrats should be the "euphoria they felt" over Trump's struggles in the polls have been replaced by reality.

"The reality is it's going to be a long, twilight struggle, day in and day out, if they're going to be able to re-take the House and eventually defeat Donald Trump," he said. "It won't be easy. It may not be possible, but it certainly won't be easy."