A perhaps-overlooked story from Tuesday’s voting is that the re-election of Donald Trump, despite Democrats’ winning control of the House, looks more likely than it might have on Monday.

Despite approval ratings that have remained persistently at 41 to 42 percent and his ability to energize Democrats with anger, the midterm results showed that Republicans are every bit as engaged as Democrats.

That’s a credit to Trump, who showed himself again to be an extraordinarily effective campaigner. His arguments are mostly disconnected from facts, but, judging from online conversations I’ve had with high school classmates in Trump country, his listeners believe him. They are all in, and Trump, making the midterms about him, got them out.

Republican gains in the Senate mean Trump can continue reshaping the judiciary with little resistance, so state election laws approved by Republican legislatures will largely be upheld. And Republicans fully control 30 state legislatures. (My native Nebraska’s one-chamber legislature is officially nonpartisan, but it’s safe to lump its membership to the right of the political spectrum.)

Republicans won gubernatorial races in states critical in presidential elections — Ohio, Iowa and Florida, where Trump campaigned in the last days of the midterm race and appears to have delivered both the governor’s race and a U.S. Senate seat that flipped to Republicans.

Full GOP control of these statehouses mean Republicans make the election rules.

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Even in states where Democrats had statewide wins, the races often were close, and in some congressional races against seemingly weakened Republicans — California’s Duncan Hunter and New York's Chris Collins, both under indictment, and Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas, who’s widely disliked and faced an energetic challenge — they fell short.

There was no blue wave and, even though the mix of Senate seats up gave a strong edge to Republicans, Democrats in some ways underperformed for the opposition party of a first-term president in a midterm election.

Finally, their winning the House is something of a political gift for Trump. He needs punching bags, and he and the Republicans and right-leaning media already have savaged House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi. For the next two years, she’ll be portrayed as a socialist felon who personally smuggles immigrants into California illegally. Expect chants of “Lock her up,” cruel memes and worse. Don’t be surprised if the Justice Department investigates her finances.

She will be the poster child for obstruction, will take the brunt of attacks in Trump’s cries of “witch hunt” over his finances and Russian ties.

Democratic-led investigations risk Kavanaugh-like backlash from a weary electorate. People might even realize that the economy is good, barring the onset of a recession in the next 18 months or so.

All of this is political reality in modern American, and it will whip up the already-energized Republican Party.

Combine all this with the fact that the Democrats lack any clearly attractive presidential candidate with national gravitas, and Trump’s prospects look pretty good for 2020.

Randy Essex is the Free Press senior content director for business and auto news. He oversaw political coverage at the Des Moines Register for 10 years, including Iowa caucuses, and has led past presidential election coverage at the Free Press and Cincinnati Enquirer.