It was a political bloodbath. Leading up to it, if you squinted, you could see a few paths for the incumbent party to mitigate some of the damage and minimize the impact of the awful fundamentals and historical trends approaching like a freight train. Those paths did not materialize.

Many Republican voters were disaffected or complacent. Democrats voted in huge numbers and with great enthusiasm. Independents, dissatisfied with both political parties, flocked to punish the people in power. The result was a cascading disaster, the first indications of which arrived very early in the evening. The news never improved for Republicans.