Republicans were predicting a "Red Wave" ( They should have gone with Crimson Tide ) in this election. Part of this was just strategy - if you act overconfident and talk about how much everyone loves you and wants what you are selling, people will usually just go along with you out of sheer laziness - but many of them also seem to have really believed it and were quite shocked when it, sadly, did not come to pass.

Many Republicans were heartbroken to discover that while they thought people would be voting on "the economy, inflation, crime" - none of which are problems that electing Republicans would solve - many voters actually were voting on abortion.

Proof? Four anti-abortion ballots went down in defeat - one of which was really red state Kentucky.

Contrarian, extraordinaire