MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Four years ago, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was re-elected to a second term in what was considered a landslide by Wisconsin standards. Evers won his 2022 race by 90,000 votes; on Tuesday, David Crowley kept Democrats in the governor's mansion, winning by more than 200,000 votes.

Both Democratic and Republican strategists who've spent years in Wisconsin politics said the 'blue tsunami' was a reason for Democrats to rejoice, but it was not necessarily an endorsement of their message.

"I think everyone understands, yes, Democrats won," Democratic strategist Sachin Chheda said. "We had to run good candidates and good campaigns to put ourselves in a position to win, but at the end of the day, this was way more the Republicans losing. This was a repudiation of Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda."

Brandon Scholz, who was once executive director of the Wisconsin GOP, watched Tuesday's election from the sidelines. Now retired, Scholz said the Republican Party will have to rebuild itself after President Donald Trump "hijacked" the GOP in 2016.

"They essentially, over his first term, and then in his second, dismantled it," Scholz said. "So, there is no Republican Party per se. It is a [Make America Great Again] party and has been since Trump came into office. But what happened yesterday was a clear signal that MAGA is pretty much over."

In Wisconsin, the backlash to higher food and fuel costs stemming from President Trump's tariffs and war with Iran was swift. Democrats flipped the state Senate from an 18-15 Republican majority to 18-15 Democratic rule, including the ousting of Sen. Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green), an established senator who co-chaired the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee.

In the Assembly, Democrats will go from a 54-45 minority to holding a 53-46 advantage. Republican Reps. Bob Donovan (R-Greenfield) and Todd Novak (R-Dodgeville), who'd historically outperformed national and statewide Republicans in their districts, lost by double-digit margins.

"[Trump] didn't do what he promised he was gonna do, which was to help people, and instead, reverted to his worst instincts," Chheda said. "And the Republican Party, instead of holding him accountable and forcing him down the right path, they just let him do whatever he wanted. And the people of America said, 'That's not OK.' There is actual accountability that's taken place here, and now it's up to the Democrats to take advantage of that moment of accountability and do something with it."

As for what Democrats should do with their trifecta, the party has, for years, touted expanding Medicaid, repealing Act 10 and restoring collective bargaining rights for public workers, increasing funding for K-12 schools and childcare providers, as well as legalizing marijuana.

Chheda said his party should focus on addressing affordability issues immediately, including utility rate cases before the Public Service Commission (PSC), as well as bills aimed and making healthcare and childcare more affordable.

"We have to address the cost of childcare and accessibility of childcare," he said. "We have to address the cost of healthcare. I'm on the marketplace. I'm in danger of my own premiums going up by four figures next year, thousands of dollars a month."

Democrats will have a huge opportunity this coming spring, when they have complete control of drafting the next two-year state budget.

Scholz said Republicans will almost certainly need more than two years to shed their MAGA brand, which was marked by electoral successes when Mr. Trump ran but an inability to rally rural, working-class voters when he was not on the ballot.

"Donald Trump, even after '28, will still be around," Scholz said. "He'll sit in the throne in Mar-a-Lago and try to call some shots, but Republicans are gonna have to figure out how to move forward and move away from Trump."