The most important thing Democrats can do right now is to figure out how to begin making inroads in state legislatures ahead of the 2020 redistricting cycle.

Everything else between now and then is largely baked in. If the Rs pull out a Senate win tonight (or in January), it will be razor-thin and will be reversed when they’re massively on the defensive in 2016. 2018 will be a wash for the Senate.

That leaves the House. Until Democrats can begin reversing the monumental gerrymandering of the 2010 cycle, we’re structurally in a hole long before the first vote is cast or the first dollar spent. And we only fix that when we start focusing on fixing the state legislatures, even in the red states.

This is by no means too early to begin making that happen. It may even be too late.