In the swing state of North Carolina, it was happy-dance time for the beleaguered Republicans. Two hotly contested congressional races both went solidly into the GOP camp, helping the Republicans in the crazies-run House. State senator Dan Bishop won in the 9th District, and Greg Murphy won in the 3rd District, and both will now get the opportunity to tell Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that they are out to lunch. It was a conservative blowout.

Five things stick out about it now.

First, straightforward conservatism, President Trump's stellar economy, and not being crazy all count for something.

Dan Bishop's campaign website highlights a no-bones, straight conservative agenda, with rule of law at the border, support for the Second Amendment, and saying "yes" to life right there in the top row in red for his agenda. It's as blunt as it gets. The second and third rows resonate with a majority of voters, too, such as voter ID, low taxes, defense of freedom of faith, supporting the troops, and strong defense rounding it out. Pure conservatism with zero namby-pambyism — and sure enough, Bishop won.

Greg Murphy, a physician, was just as good as gold as Bishop, highlighting limited government, getting rid of the government debt, supporting Trump, supporting the military, supporting the Second Amendment, decent health care, and support for life to round the platform out. It was a winner.

Second, it's Trump's party now.

President Trump rather selflessly made some campaign trips to North Carolina to support these candidates. He gave hearty endorsements to them and allowed them to associate themselves with him. It worked like a charm, because both of these were hotly contested races, and the Democrats were pouring big money into them. Trump actually tilted the field for them, just by showing up. Even the Democrats are admitting now that it was the decisive factor. The NeverTrump pipe dream of conservatism without Trump just took a cold shower. Sorry, Mitt. Sorry, Paul. Sorry, NeverTrumps. And Max Boot should go haywire.

Third, the GOP has learned its lesson about putting forward good candidates.

The 9th District race was all about a tainted election being forced by a judge to do it all over. The bad guy was a Republican who hired a sleazy consultant, and his deeds might have illegitimately flipped the race. It was right to do it over — without the cheater. As in the case of Roy Moore in Alabama, a good candidate is critical. The whole thing shows that Republicans learned their lesson from the Moore fiasco if they just remember to put forward good candidates. They can indeed win, because many voters vote based on personality, and for them, good, honest, moral candidates are as important as a good platform.

Fourth, the forecasters didn't know what they were talking about.

They called this a hair's-breadth race, narrow, neck-and-neck, the Democrats' to lose and all that. In the 9th District, the GOP really was at a disadvantage due to a bad previous candidate. And North Carolina is considered a swing or purple state, so anything really could have happened. They just chose to call it for the Democrats. Well, now they've got egg all over their faces — and that's a portent as to how much they ought to be listened to in 2020.

Fifth, Democrats are trying to claim this as their own victory anyway.

Sure — everyone wants to put on the best face, but Democrats are making fools of themselves. Both Axios and the Washington Post claimed that the margin was razor-thin. It wasn't. Murphy won by a double-digit blowout, and Bishop in the tainted 9th District won by more than two points. This wasn't a Bush-Gore redux of five or ten votes to fight over; this victory was solid. The WaPo now claims that Democrats are going into the next race from a "position of strength" after blowing a ton of money on the loss, but that signals how weak they are, not how strong. These guys are just trying to rally themselves from the knockout they just got.