the democrats are taking the 2018 midterms as a massive repudiation of Trump and they believe that they can win states like Arizona and Texas in 2020. I believe this is foolish because if you look at the results they tell a completely different story.
take Arizona for example. the Republican McSally narrowly lost Sinema. 1,180,820for Sinema and 1,127,144 for McSally. a difference of 53,676 votes. if you look the governor's race Doug Ducey, the Republican, completely walked away with it against Garcia. 1,321,475 to 985,725. a difference of 335,750.
right wingers will say the democrats stole it, which could be possible but it doesn't account for the massive difference in the gubernatorial race. it was a statewide race so they were all on the same ballot. if the dems were destroying ballots it would have affected Ducey's total.
the left and neocon claim that it's because moderates voted for the left. this is complete bullshit because Ducey is 100% pro Trump and won easily, McSally was a neocon and didn't want anything to do with Trump. the only reason she won her primary is because the pro Trump vote was split between Wade and Arpiao.
so their narrative is completely laughable with even the slightest examination of the results tell a different story. I believe that there is a portion of Trump supporters that won't blindly vote Republican. they vote for candidates that are similar to Trump's positions but not at all for RINOs.
in virtually every state wide race the pro Trump republican easily won where the neocon struggled. The only Trump backed candidates that struggled were Ted Cruz and Matt Rosendale. Cruz won against O'Rouke but nowhere near the margins of pro Trump Greg Abbot, who ran for governor. in Montana Rosendale was hardcore never Trump until he ran for Senate and Gianforte lost to the dem is the governor race even though he was pro Trump, however Gianforte was a manic body slamming a reporter from the guardian. outside of those races the notion that there is a segment of Trump voters that only vote for candidates that are verifiable Trump Republicans holds true.
I could be wrong but I found the pattern interesting. to me it seems like if the GOP runs more Trumpian candidates they'll win bigly in 2020, to the absolute shock of the punditry.