Alan Grayson was crushed by his fellow congressman, Patrick Murphy, in the U.S. Senate race. And Dena Grayson — who married Alan Grayson mid-campaign and changed her last name over Memorial Day weekend as she ran for his congressional seat — lost in a three-way race won by state Sen. Darren Soto.

There was a deep irony in the Graysons’ losses.

Alan Grayson ran for Senate with the belief that Democrats needed a true-blue progressive. But in having his wife run for his 9th Congressional District seat, she divided up the progressive vote with Grayson’s former aide and adviser, Susannah Randolph. And that allowed Soto — the type of deal-making Chamber of Commerce-like centrist Democrat that Grayson has denigrated — to waltz in, partly with the strong backing of voters of Puerto Rican heritage in the Orlando-area district.

“The progressive votes split and now you have a Puerto Rican chamber-crat who might be able to hold on to that seat for life,” said Jorge Bonilla, a Republican activist who ran and lost in a crowded GOP primary in 2014 to challenge Grayson.