What would a Democratic Congress mean for Silicon Valley?

Silicon Valley braces for Dems’ scrutiny

Silicon Valley is bracing for a firestorm of scrutiny should Democrats take control of Congress next year, underscoring how the industry’s efforts to get on President Trump’s good side last year became a political liability.

After two years of a GOP-controlled House and Senate, Democratic lawmakers are expected to bring the heat on tech firms, both through investigations into the companies’ relationship with the Trump administration and proposed AI safety regulations.

In the face of a Republican-led Washington, multiple AI and defense tech firms lined up to reconcile with the Trump administration at the start of Trump’s second term.

Two years later, political strategists predict these efforts, and a lack of AI safety regulations, could come back to haunt the tech industry in a Democrat-led Congress.

The tech industry has “done nothing to prevent themselves from being the villain of the 2028 storyline ,” Silicon Valley-based Democratic strategist Cooper Teboe told The Hill. “I suspect they have a significant number of investigations coming their way on the official side and on the political side.”

While business executives cozying up to incoming presidents of both parties is nothing new, the shift of the typical left-leaning Silicon Valley seems to be making a lasting impression on Americans’ perception of these companies.

In a recent Politico poll, Americans were more likely to assume the executives heading up the largest tech firms are Republican, including ones like Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei , who clashed with the Trump administration on AI safety earlier this year.

Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter , we’re Julia Shapero and Miranda Nazzaro — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.

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How policy will be impacting the tech sector now and in the future:

Democrats prep for election interference as Trump administration makes moves

Democrats are preparing for potential election interference after a series of remarks from President Trump and actions from his administration targeting a swath of states. The Justice Department (DOJ) preemptively filed a lawsuit last week in Alaska that could block certification of results if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses reelection, arguing that a win for former Rep. Mary Peltola (D-Alaska) could be the result of voter …

McCain predicts Elizabeth Holmes will get a Trump pardon

Meghan McCain, former Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) daughter, predicts that convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will get a pardon from President Trump. “One of my hottest, hot takes is that Elizabeth Holmes will eventually get a Trump pardon,” McCain wrote on the social platform X. She shared her thoughts in another post, asking comedian and satirist Nathan Fielder if he was “aware he just made Elizabeth getting a Trump …

CFTC sues to block Utah from enforcing gambling laws against prediction markets

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced on Tuesday that it has filed a lawsuit against the state of Utah to stop the state’s efforts to shut down CFTC-registered contract markets. The lawsuit follows a lengthy battle the state has been fighting against prediction markets. In August, a federal judge in Utah ruled that the Commodities Exchange Act does not block Utah from enforcing its gambling restrictions …

FEC electronic filing system hit with hours-long outage

The Federal Election Commission’s electronic filing system has been down for hours on Tuesday, according to a spokesperson who confirmed the agency’s IT teams are working to restore the service. According to the FEC’s incident update page, the agency said Monday night it is “investigating this issue,” stating the FEC filing system is down. An update shortly after 9:30 a.m. EDT Tuesday said the …

News we’ve flagged from t he intersection of tech and other topics:

Nvidia investing $3 billion in Meta in Muse partnership ( Axios )

Texas officials huddled with tech companies before grid blitz ( Politico )

Branch out with other reads on The Hill:

DCCC pushes for ads targeting GOP on AI, data centers in dozens of key House races

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) is pushing for advertising targeting Republican candidates over their record on AI and data centers in dozens of key House races, as technology-related issues take on new significance in the midterm elections. In a report shared first with The Hill, the Tech Oversight Project noted that House Democrats’ official campaign arm is seeking to put an emphasis on AI and …

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