4. Democrats are repairing the cracks of the vaunted “blue wall”

The GOP won several high-profile races in states like Texas and Florida. It strengthened its grip on rural whites in states where you can rack up a lot of rural white votes — Missouri, Indiana, North Dakota. However, Democrats captured the statehouses of Michigan and Wisconsin. They cruised to easy wins in Pennsylvania.

So picture this: In 2020, the Democratic presidential candidate is not going to have to worry about states like Nevada, Virginia, and Colorado as much as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton did. They appear comfortably if not cobalt blue. Arizona and Florida remain well within striking distance, if the razor-thin margins of victory in Senate races there are any indication. If the blue wall of the upper Midwest has indeed been fortified, then, at a minimum, the Obama 2012 states, minus Ohio, looks eminently doable for Democrats in ’20.