Party conventions are, of course, about the presidential nominee—last night's "star" was Melania Trump, who we'll get to in a moment—but they’re also about the party’s up-and-coming political stars. Yes, everyone who speaks at the convention must sing the praises of the man (or, finally, the woman) the party has gathered to nominate—if they don’t, they suffer, as Chris Christie did in 2012 when he spent far more time dwelling on his greatness than he did Mitt Romney’s. But it’s also an opportunity for these political prospects to show that they belong in the show—as Barack Obama, then a little-known Illinois state senator, most famously did in 2004.

If there was one takeaway from the opening night of this week’s Republican National Convention, it’s that the GOP’s star-making machinery is severely malfunctioning under the operation of one Donald J. Trump. Although Trump has struggled mightily to fill the speaking roster—with so many of the GOP’s best and brightest deciding they were too busy mowing their lawn or washing their hair to come to Cleveland this week—a handful of promising GOP pols decided to lend their good names to Trump’s candidacy, or at least cynically concluded that it was in their best interests to get on the Trump train.

And so Tom Cotton, the 39-year-old senator from Arkansas, was given a primetime speaking slot on Monday night, as was Joni Ernst, the 46-year-old, pig-castrating senator from Iowa. They bombed. Cotton delivered a leaden speech with all the charisma of a truancy officer, while Ernst, in the end, didn’t even get to appear in primetime and wound up speaking to a half-empty convention hall.

Instead, the night belonged to Melania Trump, who cleared the very low bar set for her by following the teleprompter well enough and not mangling too many English words. That it appears she plagiarized a good chunk of her speech from one Michelle Obama gave eight years ago is the sort of thing only pointy-headed liberals will focus on.

But what should be of greater concern to the GOP is that even those Republicans who agreed to play ball with Trump wound up looking worse for it. It’s safe to assume that Trump won’t have any coattails this fall and that he’ll even cost the GOP some seats. But if he also prevents the Republicans from using the 2016 convention to create presidential candidates in 2020, 2024, and beyond, his shadow over the party will be even longer than we suspected.

Jason Zengerle is GQ's political correspondent.