OLD FORGE, Pa. — The news came at 9:41 p.m. Tuesday: Frank Scavo III had lost. Again.

Mr. Scavo, a perennial candidate running for the Pennsylvania Legislature on a platform of ending property taxes, was trounced by a Democratic newcomer, Bridget Malloy Kosierowski, the first woman to represent the Scranton-area district in decades. Initially, Mr. Scavo and about 30 supporters sounded conciliatory at their election night party, praising Ms. Kosierowski for a hard-fought campaign.

But soon, after they downed the last pitcher of light beer, the discussion took a darker turn. Many of Mr. Scavo’s supporters were upset that he had drawn significant negative attention for his series of bigoted Facebook posts over the past four years, including ones that painted Muslims as “infidels” and others that promoted conspiracy theories like “Pizzagate,” the false story that Democrats ran a child sex trafficking operation out of a Washington pizza parlor.

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“Democrats are rats!” yelled Mr. Scavo’s wife, Caren, a local hair stylist who had started crying. She and others contended that he should have doubled down rather than apologize for the posts, as he did in the closing days of the race.

“I’m furious,” said Laureen Cummings, an Old Forge resident who is also a county commissioner. “Our poor president is getting hammered and the same thing happened to Frank.”