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Following a massive midterm election wave, Democrats secured major victories by blowing past required seats in both the Senate and the House. WIRED politics and science director Leah Feiger hosted a special episode of the Uncanny Valley podcast alongside senior White House correspondent Hugo Lowell, senior disinformation reporter David Gilbert, and senior writer Vittoria Elliott to analyze the results, the staggering losses of tech billionaires, and the fallout within the Republican party.
Midterm Results and the Trump Reversal
Democrats needed a net gain of four seats in the Senate and three in the House, ultimately exceeding both thresholds with victories across states like Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, Kansas, South Carolina, and Michigan. According to Hugo Lowell, the election night results reversed the gains Donald Trump made during the 2024 presidential cycle, with battleground states swinging ten points back toward Democrats. Lowell attributed the setback to a combination of federal government budget cuts under DOGE, an unpopular ongoing war in Iran, and subsequent price hikes.
Inside the Trump administration, the search for scapegoats quickly commenced. Lowell reported that staffers coalesced around blaming Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth for encouraging the continuation of the Iran war and providing overly rosy intelligence reports. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly sought their own independent intelligence briefings because they realized they were not receiving an accurate assessment of the situation on the ground.
Elon Musk’s Half-Billion-Dollar Loss
Tech billionaire Elon Musk spent nearly $500 million during the midterm cycle through his America PAC, effectively operating a shadow Republican National Committee. However, according to a WIRED analysis, candidates backed by Musk’s PAC lost 20 races and won only one by Wednesday morning. Vittoria Elliott noted that Musk’s personal brand has become toxic for Republicans, creating a “monkey’s paw” situation where taking his PAC money means getting tarred with the Musk brand. Lowell added that while the money failed to buy specific races like the Texas Senate contest, Musk’s massive financial footprint leaves him positioned to act as a powerful kingmaker heading into the 2028 presidential cycle.
Voters Reject Data Centers and AI
The artificial intelligence industry also faced a major voter backlash during the midterms. Voters rejected 39 out of 40 ballot measures regarding AI data center projects across the country, while an NBC exit poll revealed that nearly a quarter of voters considered data centers crucial to their ballot decisions. Vittoria Elliott explained that resentment toward the tech industry’s rightward swing and environmental concerns united rural communities on a bipartisan basis. Candidates associated with data center funding faced heavy resistance, and prominent Democrats like Jon Ossoff even used their victory speeches to warn against Silicon Valley titans building bunkers and pursuing AI that could cause human extinction.
Election Deniers Accept Defeat
Despite hundreds of election deniers appearing on ballots to back claims that the 2020 election was stolen, notable figures who lost their races offered concession speeches entirely devoid of conspiracy theories, vote-rigging allegations, or fraud claims. David Gilbert reported that groups like Cleta Mitchell’s Election Integrity Network and True the Vote remained silent following the defeats. Gilbert suggested that the enormous margins of defeat left candidates with no logical basis to contest the results, potentially signaling the beginning of the end for the movement as activists grow fatigued.
Looking ahead to the 2028 presidential cycle, the midterm sweep has complicated timelines for potential Republican contenders like JD Vance and Marco Rubio, while emboldened congressional Democrats prepare for aggressive oversight despite anticipated executive branch friction.
