“Youngkin was stiff-arming Donald Trump,” former Rep. Charles Dent (R-Pa.) told this column on Wednesday. Dent, a moderate, retired in the middle of the Trump presidency. “Youngkin won by ignoring Trump and appealing to swing voters in a more traditional, thoughtful way.”

Other Republicans reacted to Youngkin’s win in more starkly personal terms.

“I do think there is a new template, and that’s why I’m excited personally,” said Jean Card, who served as a speechwriter in the administration of President George W. Bush. “I have been a Republican my entire adult life, but I did not vote for Trump. I thought he was a bad leader for the Republican Party; it made me worry about the future for the party. And now there is another way.”

The excitement in Trump-skeptical circles needs to be tempered by other realities.