While over a hundred million pissed-off women and the widespread concern that Trump and the GOP are determined to destroy the American system of government seem like a powerful force, history tells us big dark money could overcome even those substantial tailwinds.

We saw this played out here in Portland just last month. Susheela Jayapal (sister of Pramila) was a well-thought-of and successful Oregon politician, on the board of the Metro government that oversees the three counties that make up the Portland metro area. She had a long list of great accomplishments and was a shoo-in to replace retiring Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer—until the America Israel Public Affairs Committee came into our district and dropped millions into the race with a deeply dishonest smear campaign.

I was getting a large four-color hit-piece flyer about every three days in my mailbox; local radio and TV were saturated with ads that essentially portrayed her as either evil or incompetent or both. And right up until the election, nobody knew that AIPAC was funding the campaign; they’d set up a front group and carefully timed its incorporation so it didn’t have to disclose its funder until after the election was over.

As Jaypal noted the day after it was announced that she’d lost the election: “This race showed so clearly why we need to have real campaign finance reform. Outside super PACs came in and spent an unprecedented $6 million, even timing their contributions so that they wouldn’t have to show who was trying to buy this election until well after the votes were cast.”