Of the many lessons from Tuesday’s election results, one is this: The GOP can do well without former President Donald Trump. He may have propelled the party to victory in 2016, but last year was a disaster. More and more, it appears as if his 2016 victory was a one-off. Republicans should look at it that way.

It is seemingly impossible to keep Trump out of the spotlight. Both Democrats and Republicans love to focus on him even when he’s not on the ballot. Democrats are eager to tether him to every GOP candidate to ruin their chances. Leading Republicans largely believe the opposite and are convinced that connections to Trump will mean victory. Unsurprisingly, Trump himself took some of the credit for Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin’s win in Virginia. Embarrassingly, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel gushed about Trump helping Republicans as a whole.