Why do major U.S. companies need a playbook for a divided Washington after November?

Trump's playbook after 2018 shows that a Democratic Congress will not sideline his oversight power, and the data center disputes are the clearest warning.

Congress competition is intensifying on the eve of the mid-term elections

Data center companies learned the hard way that winning in Washington is not the same as winning the country. They had permits, agencies, and a president who warned that cities that rejected them would end up "backward and poor." Then the neighbors appeared.

The next month's midterms also created the same trap. Polls show Democrats could sweep Congress, and the temptation in every C-suite is to mistake a Democratic Congress for a Democratic Washington.

Companies avoid this mistake when corporate communications and government affairs managers go hand-in-hand. Corporate communications people know that the November vote doesn't tell you what shareholders will believe about every issue that comes up in the next two years. Civil servants know that the flip of Congress does not mean that President Donald Trump is out of office.

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After all, voters rallied Republicans in 2006, but President George W. Bush still ordered a two-month surge in Iraq and lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling in 2008. Companies in the last days of their presidency

In each case, the power of congress to the opposition of the president remained in his hands. And Trump's record suggests he will use that power. After losing the assembly in 2018, he did not go to the center. He ordered a 35-day government shutdown and then declared a national emergency to fund the border wall. He will make deals, but on his own terms, and agencies will be his strongest leverage. Any plan that assumes he spends two years as a silent lame duck is hoping for a president that never existed.

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Voters have not changed their sides either. Voting Democratic does not make voters card holders. The party in the White House has won seats in the House only four times in midterm elections since 1900, meaning that even small losses are natural. The big losses will be on the most non-political issues: the economy, where the Iran war and tariffs have increased the cost Americans pay at each gas station and with each grocery order.

All of this means that communications and government affairs teams must think through stakeholders that each group would normally deal with alone. Data centers show what happens when they don't. When we studied the industry for Proven Media Solutions' Insider Insights report in early October, government affairs teams had spent years securing approvals from state and federal agencies and support from elected officials at every level of government. Corporate communications seemed to be left out of the limelight until local communities — bypassing the big players — played a key role in slowing the 40% of data centers slated to open this year.

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Data centers are the subject of two days, but here are some other things that should be considered by both functions at the corporate, departmental and regional level after the election results are known.

Take the DEI. The companies had long since retreated from their most controversial and political aspects with a relatively mild pushback, but Trump's early 2025 executive orders put the issue back in the spotlight for months. Government contractors especially suffered as words like "shareholder" were scrubbed from websites - good for contracts but terrible for employee relations, as many felt diversity had been traded for profit.

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If Democrats call some of the big government contractors to testify about these changes, or publicly accuse them of racist behavior, lobbying or hand-wringing behind the scenes won't solve the problem. Corporate communications must build trust with all stakeholders, especially minority partners, investors, and employees—through every possible messenger—before hearing notice arrives.

Or look at immigration, where hotel chains are under pressure from ICE lodgers. In January, Public Services removed a Minneapolis-area hotel from federal lodging programs after a Minneapolis-area franchisee denied agents a room. Weeks later, protesters occupied the lobby of the Manhattan Hilton because of the opposing lawsuit.

The chains have largely avoided local controversy, often by smartly issuing statements and then keeping quiet, but that may be impossible when Congress gets involved. Government affairs relations with committees and agencies, along with corporate communications with customers, employees and franchisees, are needed to navigate these waters.

That's why the post-election plan should be a single playbook developed by both teams, mapping out where the company is vulnerable, where it has leverage, and which of today's allies could become tomorrow's critics. Government affairs teams know regulators, agency staff and appointees that it doesn't matter who wins. Corporate communications staff know the customers, employees, and communities that judge everything the company says. A message written for one group is read by another, so it should be the same story every time.

The Democrats were supposed to be irrelevant after 2004 and 2024, and the GOP after 2012 and 2020 — and apparently 2026. Voters who want more money in their pockets and no data centers near their backyards won't switch parties, and corporations that plan to talk like they're a country.

Dustin Siggins is the founder of Proven Media Solutions and a business writer with bylines at Insider, Forbes, USA TODAY, and elsewhere.

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