At long last, the vaunted “red wave” that eluded the Republican Party two years ago washed over the United States and carried President-elect Donald Trump back to the White House and likely with it a Republican-controlled Congress.

Two years ago, Republicans stood at their election night watch parties in disbelief as the sizable House and Senate majorities that the party expected voters would hand them failed to materialize. Instead, Democrats, despite facing the headwinds of an unpopular President Joe Biden, managed to overperform expectations and maintain control of the Senate while holding Republicans to a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives. The red wave that was promised fizzled into a trickle.