Joe Coors may not be a beer, but his campaign, like his family’s beer brand, provided a silver (bullet) lining to this otherwise brutal election cycle.

While his campaign for Congress may not have been victorious, he did play an outsized role in another competitive Congressional race in Colorado — Mike Coffman’s 6th Congressional District.

Coors’ hard-charging campaign drew the attention, and millions of dollars, of numerous liberal outside groups, from Nancy Pelosi’s House Majority PAC to government union AFSCME. In total, liberal groups spent about $2 million attacking Coors and defending Congressman Ed Perlmutter.

That was time, money and attention not going towards what ended up being the closest race in the state — the CD6 matchup between Republican Congressman Mike Coffman and Democrat challenger Joe Miklosi.

Coffman took the race 49-45, while Perlmutter won 53-41, a spread that’s got to gut Democrats who are otherwise feeling pretty good today.

Who knows what caused such an epic failure to occur?

The Democrats’ legal team, funded healthily by the likes of Pat Stryker and other liberal donors with bottomless pockets, was successful in persuading the courts to turn the district from ruby red to Rockies purple in redistricting. How in the world did they allow the likes of Joe Miklosi to end up as their standard bearer in the year they had the best shot at the seat?

Republicans may be licking their wounds and wondering what happened today, but they can be thankful Joe Coors showed up on the scene and someone else other than Joe Miklosi did not.