Hi. Welcome to On Politics, your guide to the day in national politics. I’m Lisa Lerer, your host.

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For eight years, Republicans dreamed of repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Now, they’re finding that eliminating the health care law may actually be more like their version of the nightmare before Christmas.

A ruling Friday by a federal judge in Texas striking down the entire law has forced Republicans into yet another difficult moment of confrontation, after an election season spent fending off a barrage of Democratic attacks over their former opposition to the law’s more popular provisions.

Already, the ruling has injected new pressure into the races of three Republicans running for governor in Louisiana, Mississippi and Kentucky next year. And Democrats hope they can keep up the drumbeat of attacks well into 2020, seeing the decision as a potent combination of two issues that they argue play well with the suburban women and blue-collar voters who could be crucial in the presidential race: protecting the health care law and attacking “activist” judges.