So, Kerry Bentivolio, the accidental congressman, has gained a spot in the history books.
The Washington Post is reporting that the former reindeer rancher’s landslide loss was among worst defeats suffered by a congressional incumbent in the years since 1968.
Here’s how the Post put the Milford Republican’s loss into context:

“The power of incumbency is revered in politics simply because, unlike so many other superstitions, it’s legit. Incumbents win reelection to federal office far, far more often than not. Plus about 19 more “far”s.
“In fact, data compiled by Bloomberg News’ Greg Giroux (and available here) indicates that only 155 incumbents have lost reelection since 1968. Which sounds like a lot until you consider that there have been almost 11,000 contested races over that time (biannual House races in every seat and the full Senate every six years). So we’re talking about about 1.4 percent of the time, incumbents lose. If we exclude incumbent-versus-incumbent matches thanks to redistricting, the number drops to 124 incumbent losses or just over 1 percent of all races.
“Which is one reason that Rep. Kerry Bentivolio’s (R-Mich.) loss on Tuesday night is exceptional. But the other is that Bentivolio lost badly. As of this writing, the not-yet-final returns have him down 66.3 to 33.7 percent to challenger Dave Trott. That’s a spread of 33 points, once you round up. To put this in context, the average margin of defeat for an incumbent since 1968 was 13.3 percent.”
(The numbers did not change —
Trott won by a 66-34 percent margin)