After Democratic wins, these Republicans could be in trouble next

Rep. Scott Taylor, R-Va., was one of the most widely quoted GOP lawmakers in the wake of Tuesday night’s Democratic victories in Virginia, New Jersey, and beyond.

“I don’t know how you get around that this wasn’t a referendum on the administration, I just don’t," Taylor told reporters at vanquished Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie's election night party. "Some of the very divisive rhetoric really prompted and helped usher in a really high Democratic turnout in Virginia."

Taylor was back at it on CNN on Wednesday morning. "I think last night was a referendum [on President Trump]. I don't think there was any way you could look at it a different way, to be honest with you, and be intellectually consistent,” he said.

The 38-year-old freshman Republican congressman representing Virginia Beach has reason to worry. Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam, the Democrat Virginians elected on Tuesday to serve as the commonwealth’s governor, won 51 percent of the vote in Taylor’s district.

For Republicans, the next shoe to drop is whether Democrats can replicate their success in the suburbs in 2018. That’s why there was so much focus on the special election in Georgia’s 6th Congressional District over the summer: The theory was that Democrats could capture the support of suburban, college-educated voters who have cast ballots for Republicans in the past but are turned off by Trump.