Is there any question that disgraced former President Donald Trump had a big hand in the failure of Republicans to fulfill expectations in last night's midterms?

In Pennsylvania Doug Mastriano, a Trump-endorsed MAGA candidate who fully embraced 2020 election conspiracy theories, lost big in the gubernatorial race. In that state's Senate race, Dr. Mehemet Oz lost to John Fetterman, the Democratic candidate who had a stroke and is, by an objective measure, not fit to serve in office.

In George, Trump-backed Senate candidate Herschel Walker is currently behind the Democratic candidate, and headed for a runoff, even though the Republican gubernatorial candidate, Brian Kemp, a Trump enemy, won his election handily.

In Arizona, Trump-backed Senate candidate Blake Masters lost, and Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake appears to be losing a very close race.

But perhaps the best example is in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Republicans chose a Trump-backed candidate, John Gibbs, over the incumbent, Peter Meijer, who had voted to impeach Trump. Now Gibbs has lost that race, allowing a Democrat to hold that seat for the first time in 50 years.

On this episode of Plain Talk, Chad Oban and I discuss all of these national election results, and we get very local too. Rick Becker lost big in North Dakota's Senate race. What will he do next?

Former Miss America Cara Mund also lost in a landslide to Republican U.S. House incumbent Kelly Armstrong, though she outperformed the Democratic candidates on the ballot by about 10 points. Will she run again?

And the North Dakota Democratic-NPL has lost ground in the legislature, again, turning a super-minority in the state assembly into, what, a super-super-minority?

Click to listen, and if you'd like to be alerted when new episodes of Plain Talk drop, be sure to subscribe - it's free! - on the podcast service of your choice.