Democrat Josh Shapiro has blown out Trump-endorsed Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, with the former winning by double-digits.

Mastriano has been a heavy underdog from the beginning and that played out in disappointing fashion on Tuesday night.

Things are not going well for Republicans so far, and because this race was lost months ago, it won’t get much press. Still, there’s a lesson to be learned here, though some with be loathed to learn it.

Mastriano was a terrible candidate (something I’ve said several times in the past). He was at January 6th, which played right into the messaging Democrats were trying to push all cycle. In fact, liberal money groups propped up Mastriano to help him win the GOP nomination because they felt beating him was an easy layup. They were right.

Further, Mastriano never showed an ability, even in the primary, to run a real campaign. That’s important for a major candidate, and his lack of fundraising prowess turned out to be disastrous. All that to say that candidate quality matters. Republicans can’t keep just nominating whoever Donald Trump endorses without a thought towards actually being able to win.

Agree or disagree, there will be a lot of time for recriminations in the coming days. For now, the red wave has faded, and things could get worse if the dynamics don’t change out west. I was chastised for only predicting 51 Republican Senate seats in my final predictions, but I might have actually overshot. I can’t express how frustrating that is.