Republicans weren’t the only losers in last night’s general election.
Elon Musk, the cryptocurrency industry and data centers also got walloped, burning through hundreds of millions of dollars backing losing candidates and now must contend with powerful Democratic opponents ushered in by a “bluenami.”
Musk, the trillionaire ally of President Donald Trump who poured over $445 million into the midterms, is widely expected to be a top target for Democrats.
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Musk’s millions overwhelmingly went into Texas’ U.S. Senate race, where Democratic state Rep. James Talarico defeated Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and became the first Democrat elected to the Senate since 1988.
“Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time,” Musk posted on X early Wednesday with a shrug emoji.
The cryptocurrency industry also suffered setbacks.
The industry-aligned super PAC Fairshake, funded primarily by industry leaders Ripple, Andreessen Horowitz and Coinbase, spent over $10 million opposing Juliana Stratton, the Democratic Senate nominee in Illinois who easily won her seat.
And Sherrod Brown, the former senator from Ohio who lost in 2024 after Fairshake spent millions to back now-Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, won his way back into the Senate last night.
Moreno has been a leading advocate on Capitol Hill for the cryptocurrency industry. At a campaign event last month, Brown he said the industry was spending against him again this election cycle because “they know I’m gonna take ‘em on.”
Several candidates backed by Fairshake and its affiliates did win Tuesday, including Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska) — who managed to fend off an independent challenger — and Sens.-elect Barry Moore in Alabama and Andy Barr in Kentucky.
Geoff Vetter, a Fairshake spokesperson, highlighted the Nebraska victory in a statement to The Washington Sun — and predicted more success to come.
“Fairshake played a meaningful role in winning competitive races across the country in 2026 and we will do it again in 2028,” Vetter wrote. “Newly elected and current members will have a choice: protect consumers and American jobs or fight progress. We will be watching and ’28 is a new map.”
The data center industry also spent heavily in the months leading up to the general election.
It didn’t go well.
Building the Future, a new pro-data industry super PAC that has not yet disclosed its donors, spent over $2.5 million on media and text messages in support of Sen. Darline Graham (R-South Carolina), who lost in a stunning upset to Democrat Annie Andrews.
In September, Andrews called for a two-year moratorium on new data center projects in South Carolina. While she won’t have a vote on state policy and the federal government is unlikely to adopt a nationwide moratorium, it’s emblematic of a broader anti-data center shift.
Anti-data center forces won 38 of 39 ballot measures in states across the country, from California to Maine, according to an analysis by Redbud Consulting. Eight results are outstanding.
“They basically burned their cash,” a Democratic lobbyist granted anonymity to discuss issues that could impact clients in the data center and crypto industries told The Sun.
“If you run on something and you have hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ads run against you, and that doesn’t stop you, you’re going to keep on moving and probably keep on moving more aggressively,” they said. “I think for Democrats, that’s going to be one of their focuses, and those industries are going to be in the bull’s-eye.”
While Trump still holds veto power over federal legislation, there’s plenty Democrats can do to make life difficult for these and other industries — and keep K Street busy helping clients navigate anticipated congressional investigations and oversight hearings.
“Businesses are about to find themselves dangerously sandwiched between a still powerful but unforgiving Executive Branch with whom they must work, and a righteously indignant and electorally emboldened Congress determined to find and expose corruption, which they perceive everywhere,” Bruce Mehlman, founder of bipartisan lobbying firm Mehlman Consulting, told The Washington Sun on Wednesday morning.
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