Democrats Take House and Senate, and CEOs Lose Their Trump Playbook

Democrats won back control of both the House and the Senate in Tuesday's midterm elections, delivering a blunt rebuke to President Trump and rewriting the strategy corporate leaders must use in Washington, Fortune's CEO Daily reports.

Donors poured a record $12 billion into midterm campaigns. It didn't work. Elon Musk alone spent $446 million — including roughly $200 million trying to defeat Democrat James Talarico in Texas. Talarico won the Senate seat anyway. Fortune editor Diane Brady writes that the excessive spending from the world's richest man "sparked a backlash and counter-campaign insisting Texas was not for sale."

The bottom line for executives: money stopped buying outcomes, and the wooing playbook expired.

What did voters actually reject?

Voters turned down nearly every play in the modern political-financial handbook, according to Fortune's account:

• Trump's personal picks. The president told voters to act as if his name was on the ballot — and in many races where he personally campaigned, they rejected his candidates.
• The Ohio gubernatorial candidate who ran what Fortune calls "a repulsive ad exploiting the childhood trauma of his opponent." He lost.
• The billionaires trying to buy hearts and votes.
• The gerrymandering that was supposed to produce reliable results — Democrats flipped House seats in Florida anyway.

Turnout was strong across the political spectrum, which Fortune frames as "a testament to Americans' faith in democracy." The most powerful currency in the country, the piece notes, "remains one vote per citizen."

Why the old CEO playbook no longer works

For two years, corporate America operated on a simple formula: flattery, access and gifts. Fortune has previously documented how CEOs dealt with Trump — "praise, face time, remorse and gifts made of gold all go a long way, experience shows."

That era is over, Brady argues. "Gone are the days when wooing Trump was sufficient to get things done," she writes. "Now, funding ballrooms, bearing gifts, and pouring praise on this president may be a liability."

The midterms were, in Fortune's reading, "a vote on the state of the economy, but it was also a vote on the state of democracy."

What comes next on policy?

Three pressure points stand out for business:

• Cost of living. Policymakers must now prioritize grocery and gas costs, housing, health care "and that debt," per Fortune.
• AI and data centers. The debate around data-center development — already on ballots in states like Ohio — is likely to become more intense under a Democratic Congress.
• Oversight. Voters want a strong check on the president after watching the legislative branch, in Fortune's words, "give him a free pass on everything from dismantling federal agencies and redirecting federal funds to waging war and imposing tariffs."

But there's a warning attached: voters don't want "two years of bitter investigations and gridlock instead of getting things done." Democrats' control of the House already sets up probes into Trump family businesses and crypto ventures, Fortune notes.

One legitimacy question, one CEO assignment

President Trump said Wednesday night that he would accept the outcome. Fortune is skeptical: "Whether he's true to his word is anybody's guess."

That's where business leaders come in. Brady argues CEOs should use this moment "to remind people that the strength of this country lies not just in free and fair markets but in free and fair elections" — especially if political leaders try to stir doubt about the result.

Markets, meanwhile, look set to rally as investors weigh the election results.

The task ahead, in Fortune's one-line framing: turn a protest vote into good policy.