The unexpected victory of Max Rose in the 11th Congressional district, which encompasses Staten Island and a sliver of southern Brooklyn, now means that the current president cannot count a single Republican in the House of Representatives from New York, the city that invented him.

Staten Island, a Republican stronghold, skewed heavily for Donald Trump in 2016, but now even voters who remained loyal to the president were willing to give Mr. Rose, a 31-year-old former combat veteran and health care executive, a chance to prove he could reshape the fortunes of working people.

The last time this district sent a Democrat to Congress was in 2008.

In the weeks leading up to the election, I saw 15 Beto O’Rourke T-shirts for every one Max Rose T-shirt in brownstone Brooklyn, which is to say that the race failed to enrapture many New Yorkers despite the fact that it was happening in New York. In light of that, Mr. Rose’s accomplishment seems singularly impressive — as well as instructive — more so even than what Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez managed to do in her primary fight against a longtime Democratic Party loyalist, a feat that left her anointed as the future of liberal politics.

But Ms. Ocasio-Cortez’s gifts of charisma are not easily scalable.

We might begin with what Mr. Rose had to overcome — the lack of any telegenic appeal or especially inspired and passionate speaking style or a claim to Staten Island imparted by birth. If you were a Vogue editor, your first instinct upon seeing or hearing him would not be to commission a 3,000-word profile and dress him in Tom Ford for the portrait.