(CNN) When former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced last year that he was leaving his cushy DC lobbying job to try to reclaim his old job, establishment Republicans cheered. Pawlenty, who spent eight years as the state's governor last decade, was seen as the party's only chance of winning the governor's mansion in the Democratic-tilting state.

On Tuesday, Pawlenty lost the Republican primary -- convincingly . The author of the shocking upset was Jeff Johnson, a lightly known Hennepin County commissioner.

"The Republican Party has shifted," Pawlenty acknowledged in his concession speech Tuesday night. "It is the era of Trump, and I'm just not a Trump-like politician."

Yup, that captures the current state of affairs nicely.

What's remarkable is how quickly Trump's hostile takeover of the GOP happened. Back when Pawlenty ran for president in 2012, he was regarded as one of the bright young stars of the party -- someone who had cracked the code on how Republicans could win in blue states in the industrial Midwest. Six years later, Pawlenty couldn't even win a Republican primary in a state where he spent almost a decade as governor -- and against a candidate who no one gave a chance of unseating him when the race started.

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