The fallout from the Nov. 2 elections continues to rain across the political landscape, with Democrats still pondering exactly what hit them.

That includes Democrats in what was thought to be very safe blue territory – like New Jersey. There, the political grandees admit the results caught them off guard. But they also say the numbers offered a clear warning about 2022:

According to [South Jersey Democratic power broker George] Norcross, Democrats need to change voter perceptions fast if they want to preserve their majority in the House of Representatives. As many as four or five Democratic members of New Jersey’s House delegation will run into challenges with redistricting and reelection “if this mood maintains itself,” he said. “That’s trouble.”

Trouble already struck New Jersey, where the state’s second most powerful pol, now -ex Sen. Steve Sweeney, lost his re-election bid to Edward Durr, a Republican whose regular job is driving a tractor-trailer.

[Norcross] take is that the elevation of avowed socialists like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — who campaigned with Murphy days before the gubernatorial election — reinforces Republican depictions of the party as pro-tax socialists who want to defund the police.

Even in deep-blue New Jersey, that doesn’t play, Norcross said.

“Voters massively rejected that notion, which was largely defined from the top in Washington, then down through New Jersey,” he said, later adding: “The Democratic Party today, because of a lack of prominent leaders, has largely become defined by the progressive faces in our country.”

Setting aside the notion that Democrats, who occupy the leadership positions in Congress, and hold the White House, don’t have prominent leaders…

…the progressives really are the focus of the anger, doubt, and fear settling in among old-line Democratic pols. The 2022 Democratic primary season is going to be lit.