Voters took a wrecking ball to the traditional map of political battlegrounds, electing Democrats in states that were long considered reliably Republican.

Kansas, South Carolina, Texas, Ohio and Iowa, all states Republican Donald Trump easily won two years ago in the presidential election, backed Democrats for the U.S. Senate and occasionally governor, too, on Tuesday.

Now the question is whether the results represent a durable tectonic shift - one that could reshape the path to the presidency - or a fluke stemming from Trump's deep unpopularity and voters' unhappiness with the rising cost of living.