You asked for a miracle, Theo. I give you the FBI. (or at least Kash Patel and his incompetence).
These are two very local races with very small turnout, so they may not mean anything, but tossing caution to the wind, one could speculate that these indicate that both sides are increasingly dug in and activation of voter participation is pretty limited to the controlling party in the particular district.
Yeah, I don't know why Democrats were "hopeful" of picking up that seat, no matter what some polls may have said. Those districts are incredibly gerrymandered, Alabama is one of the reddest states in the nation - they elected Tuberville as a Senator for pete's sake - and even a college town like Tuscaloosa is more conservative than a typical college town would normally be. There's just not much in Alabama for Democrats to hope for - I'm honestly surprised the state didn't elect Roy Moore to the Senate back in 2018, pedophile or no. And he barely lost. So I don't think there's much evidence in that Alabama race to say anything about the Democrat's national prospects this year.
Definitely a possibility.
I am not concerned about it at all. GOTV for a special election is difficult in general; for a single state leg district, even harder; and in an environment where everything is nationalized and states seem to do nothing, it's even harder.