THE GOP WAS FOUNDED IN OPPOSITION TO RACISM, NOT SUPPORT OF:

[Kristin] Olsen, 44, told NBC News that Republicans had already struggled to adapt to a changing state, but the "division, hostility, vindictiveness, and lies" coming from President Donald Trump's White House was a knockout punch.

"It was the straw that broke the camel's back for many, many, many Republican voters," she said.

In the Central Valley, where Olsen is a county official, a surge in Latino turnout overwhelmed four-term Congressman Jeff Denham. But the most jarring losses came in suburban Orange County, an iconic GOP enclave where Richard Nixon was born and buried and where anti-tax activists helped lead the Reagan Revolution. Democrats won all four GOP-held seats.

Figures like Olsen, who identified as Republican but opposed Trump in 2016, were often mocked as irrelevant after his victory. Polls showed Republican voters united behind his presidency, despite nagging opposition from retiring GOP politicians and a handful of conservative pundits.

But the midterm wave, where Democrats won close to 40 seats and romped in the suburbs, seems to have included a lot of voters who look like Olsen.

"It was the revenge of the Never Trumpers in the House," said David Wasserman, an elections analyst for Cook Political Report and an NBC News contributor and senior analyst with the NBC Election Unit.

One analysis by Democratic firm Catalist showed a 24 point swing among white college-educated woman toward Democrats from 2014 to 2018.

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