Republican candidates who bet big on Donald Trump faced major losses in recent general elections. While his support helped them win primaries, it became a liability later. Strategist Justin Evans said, "The people who did the best last night were the people who distanced themselves from the president." Many candidates fell.
The president's approval was essential to winning Republican Senate primaries. It became lethal in competitive general-election races.
President Trump used to gloat about his near-perfect endorsement record, reveling in the control he exerted over the Republican nomination process during this year's primary season. Voters overwhelmingly rewarded the candidates he backed and punished those who displeased him, muscling numerous less loyal candidates out of contention.
"If you pushed back" on Mr. Trump, said Justin Evans, a Republican strategist in South Carolina, "you'd get your head chopped off."
Mr. Trump has little to brag about this week. Senate candidates he had helped elevate, including Darline Graham in South Carolina, Michael Whatley in North Carolina and Ken Paxton in Texas, lost by margins previously unimagined by even the most optimistic Democrats. Those high-profile defeats contributed to what Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a one-time Trump rival for the presidential nomination, called as "close to an extinction-level event for Republicans" as the country has seen in a century.
"The people who did the best last night were the people who distanced themselves from the president," Mr. Evans said, calling the results "a universal repudiation of the bullying that's been taking place during this primary" by Mr. Trump.
Here's a look at what happened to some of the candidates who tied their fortunes most closely to Mr. Trump.