Some late predictions said it would be a red tsunami that Republicans would sweep the midterm elections, putting many GOP candidates who campaigned on culture war issues instead of specific policy proposals into both chambers of Congress and into critical positions in states across the country.

Culture warriors are the type of candidates who use white grievance, fearmongering and moral panics about the topic du jour to whip up a frenzy among voters. These politics have increasingly become the cornerstone of the GOP, particularly since Donald Trumps 2016 campaign for president. Two years ago, these conservatives criticized public health policies and critical race theory, and they have since shifted to banning books, a rabidly anti-LGBTQ worldview and racist insinuations about crime.

Despite the embrace of Trumpism costing Republicans the 2018 and 2020 elections, many candidates leaned heavily into their culture warrior personas this year. Doug Mastriano and Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Paul LePage in Maine, Lee Zeldin in New York, and Tudor Dixon in Michigan represent just a sampling of candidates who thought relying on grievances in substitute of actual policies would lead to victory.

They were wrong.

In Pennsylvanias race for governor, Mastriano a far-right state senator who was outside the U.S. Capitol during last years Jan. 6 riot lost to Josh Shapiro, the states attorney general. A Christian nationalist , Mastriano said he wanted to ban transgender people from accessing bathrooms that match their gender identity and closed out his campaign by promising to remove sexually explicit material from school libraries. Shapiro campaigned on equality for the entire LGBTQ community.

Oz, the celebrity doctor hand-picked by Trump, was defeated in his Senate race by Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, even after Oz attacked him for having an extensive soft-on-crime agenda . Fetterman, who is on the states Board of Pardons and has voted to commute prison sentences, advocates for reducing prison terms for some people convicted of murder and against mandatory life sentences. To Oz, that meant his opponent was the most pro-murderer candidate in America.

Herschel Walker, another candidate with Trumps support, is headed to a runoff in Georgia with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock after neither candidate successfully reached the 50% threshold to win their Senate contest. Walker has said that transgender children wont go to heaven , complained that the Pentagon is bringing wokeness in our military and said that the federal government doesnt need to do much to stop racism and discrimination because the U.S. Constitution already does that.

In Michigan, the far-right Dixon lost handily to incumbent Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. During her campaign, Dixon jumped on the conservative bandwagon against drag performances; libraries and other venues across the country have faced protests over family-friendly events like drag queen story hours. The candidate promised to make it a crime to bring minors to drag shows , saying the events normalize the sexualization of children.

Whitmer beat Dixon 55% to 44%.

LePage, the former governor of Maine who once referred to himself as Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular, attempted to stage a comeback this year. During his two terms in office, LePage frequently made headlines for racist comments about Black and brown people. His 2022 campaign for governor featured an education plan that resembled Floridas anti-gay and anti-trans agenda, and he accused his opponent, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, of woke policies that fuel out-of-control crime. Janet Mills is using taxpayer money to send people to places where they can get free crack pipes, he once said .

Mills defeated LePage by 13 points .