An election in South Florida this week may serve as a marker for where the Republican Party stands in 2022, and how much American democracy has already changed since Donald Trump lost reelection.

The election on Tuesday was ... was a special election to replace a House Democrat who died in office in April. Joe Biden won the [district] with 77 percent in the 2020 election. The Democratic winner, Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, ... a progressive who spent her own money to win and backs the concept of universal basic income ... won 79 percent of the vote over Republican Jason Mariner, who ... got less than 20 percent of the vote and trails Cherfilus-McCormick by over 32,000 votes.

“Now they called the race, I did not win, so they say, but that does not mean that they lost either, it does not mean that we lost,” Mariner was quoted by the Miami CBS affiliate as saying. He said he will file a lawsuit.

this ... episode shows the Republican Party could be drifting toward a new norm of refusing to concede — even in landslides. Mariner's refusal to concede and decision to file a lawsuit raises an interesting question ... What if a partisan judge rules, without facts, in favor of a soundly defeated candidate for office? If that seems implausible, then what about for closer elections?