Michael Bekesha ran his campaign against Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen as an “urban Republican”—a fiscal conservative who shares his city’s core values, and eschews any association with President Donald Trump.

Unfortunately for Bekesha, his attempts to cast himself in opposition to the national Republican party weren’t enough to win him the seat in Ward 6, a heavily Democratic ward in a heavily Democratic city, eager as any liberal metropolis to stick it to Trump this election cycle.

“I really believe it was less about me and more about the ‘Republican’ next to my name,” Bekesha tells DCist the day after the election. “I was talking to one voter for quite a while … and she was trying to convince me to run as a Democrat in the future, and I would do much better.”

This is likely true—there were reports on Election Day of residents bullet voting for Democrats in every race, perhaps trying to add to the blue wave they hoped would materialize in races across the country.

But Bekesha’s day job is much more directly in line with national Republican ideology than his campaign would have had you believe. He works for Judicial Watch, a staunchly conservative and Trump-supporting watchdog organization active on the national stage. In late October, a member of the board of directors appeared on Lou Dobb Tonight and spouted an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory on air.

Washingtonian asked Bekesha to comment on the director’s statements, and Bekesha provided a written statement saying that he “condemn[s] all hate speech, bigoted beliefs, and conspiracy theories.” After follow-up, he initially declined to directly address the director’s comments or defend his position at Judicial Watch, but later on Twitter, Bekesha said he condemns his colleague’s comments.

Bekesha says he does not think his day job had any real effect on whether voters decided to cast their ballots in his favor. “I didn’t hear that from voters on the street,” he says. He believes it was a simple question of party loyalty, in which people did not stop to listen to his positions and work out whether they agreed. In some cases, he says, even people who did agree with him couldn’t bring themselves to cast a vote for a Republican, given the national context of this year’s election.

Still, Bekesha says he’s proud of his numbers in Ward 6. Voters went 88.4 percent to Allen, 10.5 percent to Bekesha, and 1 percent to write-ins.

It’s rare for a Republican to win double digits in any general election in the District, though the last time it happened, it was also in Ward 6. In 2010, Republican Jim DeMartino took 14 percent of the vote in his race against Allen’s predecessor Tommy Wells. The raw vote tally still favors Bekesha, though, who managed to garner 4,040 votes to DeMartino’s 2,674.

As for the advice he was given to run as a Democrat, Bekesha demurred. “I’m still a Republican, and we will see where the national party goes. I haven’t thought about running again, as Republican or Democrat or independent or anything else,” he says.

He says he’s proud of the race he ran, particularly in the discussions he had with his competitor, Charles Allen. He congratulated Allen for his win on Twitter, writing that “Charles cares about Ward 6. He will do us right for another four years. And if not, I’ll make sure he is held accountable. I’m not going anywhere.”

“I wish people had paid more attention to the issues being discussed in the ward race,” he says. “Charles and I had a very good conversation about the issues, and I wish people took a bit closer notice of how you can have a civil and robust discussion of ideas without the hatred you see in national politics and some of the other races around town.” (Bekesha is likely referring to the tense race between at-large incumbent Elissa Silverman and her opponent Dionne Reeder, which Silverman won).

Bekesha says given what’s happened this time around, he believes it will continue to be difficult for Republicans to gain a foothold in city politics. Still, he’s had conversations with voters in the last few months that leave him hopeful.

“I think the idea of an urban Republican is one that resonates with voters,” he says. “I hope to continue to be involved in Ward 6 and see what happens in the future.”