Youngkin is “very deft for somebody who hasn’t run a campaign before, in understanding the importance of the Trump voters out there to his coalition,” said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the GOP whip. “It’s a good playbook. Hopefully, our candidates can sort of watch and learn.”

Virginia’s incoming governor focused most of his energy on education in the state and other local issues, a throwback to the Senate GOP’s 2016 “sheriff races” strategy of focusing on local matters and not Trump during their successful defense of their majority that year. Still, the former president always loomed large in this year’s Virginia gubernatorial race, as Terry McAuliffe tried to capture the anti-Trump energy that’s animated the Democratic Party for the last five years.

And Youngkin handled that in a way that Republicans hope GOP candidates can emulate in battleground states like New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Youngkin didn’t renounce Trumpism in a blue state, nor did he emphasize it. That gives Republicans lots of room to work with when it comes to using Trump’s base to reinstall Mitch McConnell as the majority leader.