Where Democrats are losing voters, per Tuesday's results

According to an analysis of the situation by NBC News' Meet the Press, the most troubling takeaway from Democrats' less-than-ideal showing in Tuesday's off-year elections wasn't that perhaps former President Donald Trump is no longer as effective a foil as he was in 2020, or that the left lost independent voters in Virginia.

Rather, the more alarming bottom line is that the party is losing "losing white voters, rural voters and voters without college degrees by such large margins that it makes winning elections hard," even in "diverse and highly-educated states" such as Virginia and New Jersey, argues NBC News.

In Virginia's gubernatorial race, for example, exit polls showed white men — who comprised 36 percent of the electorate — went for Republican Glenn Youngkin over Democrat Terry McAuliffe 66 percent to 34 percent, a 2-to-1 margin. With white women, who made up 38 percent of Virginia voters, 57 percent to 43 percent cast their ballot for Youngkin.

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And for the 36 percent of non-college educated white voters, 76 percent chose Youngkin, compared to the 24 percent who preferred McAuliffe, per NBC News. A similar trend can be seen in Republican Jack Ciattarelli's performance in New Jersey.

It is worth nothing, however, that there were somewhat similar numbers in Virginia's 2017's gubernatorial contest, won by Democrat Ralph Northam.

Still, writes NBC, "if you are losing 36 percent of all voters by a 76 percent-to-24 percent margin, it means you have to win 65 percent of all other voters to get to 50 percent-plus one." For the candidate winning these voters by that same margin, "it means you need to win just 35 percent of all other voters."

And that, Meet the Press argues, is the consequence of failing to appeal to those blocs.