House, Senate at Stake as US Midterms Kick Off

This is Bloomberg Businessweek daily reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy, plus global business, finance and tech news as it happens. Bloomberg Businessweek daily with Carol Massar and Tim Stent event live on Bloomberg Radio, Television and Bloomberg Originals. All right, everybody. 57 million Americans have already voted on this Election Day. Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026 Carol Massar, along with Tim Stenbeck joining us right here on radio, TV, YouTube, Bloomberg Originals. Uh, no doubt about it. Uh, elections are in focus. We've got millions more are casting their ballots, uh, throughout the day, going to determine a lot of local issues as well as who is basically in control of Congress. Sounds like the House is going to go to the Democrats Senate. Maybe not so certain, but who knows. All bets off. Yeah, I was going to say we might have to wait until tomorrow, but for the Senate, we might have to wait a few days for those results. And you mentioned 57 million Americans who've already gone to the polls already voted. How about this for a number $12 billion, the most expensive election in U.S. history. Senate races in Texas have I in Michigan, in California, leading the pack according to ad impact. When it comes to that spending, that's something we're going to talk about, uh, with our own Bloomberg campaign finance, uh, reporter Bill Allison on how this election will go down as the most expensive in U.S. history. Whoever wins, we don't know yet. You know who won? Anybody who was in the political ad business? Yes. Jim Messina on balance of power earlier saying, I like the spending. It's making me rich. Exactly. No doubt about it. They've already won. Hey, we are also going to check in with our reporters in some of the key battleground states. We're talking Michigan, we're talking main, we're talking Texas, and we're going to check in with them in just a moment. Joe. Matthew, he's in town. He and Kelly lines. They're going to be leading our coverage this evening as the polls close. but he's going to stop by right here in our studio. Well, the a word just dominating when it comes to the way that respondents are responding to these polls about what issues are important to voters, that would be affordability, a key issue in elections. Max Chaffin is joining us with Linsey Owens, the president of the Groundwork Collaboration, to talk about the end of Fair Price and why we're feeling it in our wallets. Yeah, this is a great story that Max wrote out. And it's also the topic of a book by Lindsey Owen. So we're going to get into that. He also today through Thursday, we are opening up access to all of our coverage on both Bloomberg.com and the Bloomberg News app. That means on the web, all of our news and analysis will be accessible for free during the US midterms and direct aftermath of the vote. You can check it out. If you're not a Bloomberg.com subscriber. Not a problem. Just access our coverage for free during the US election. So come join us. All right, having said that, we got to get a check on the trade because we are in the midst of earnings season. Uh, let's get to it with Charlie Pelley. All right. I thank you very much, Carol and Tim. Happy election Day. Right now we have got the Dow lower the S&P NASDAQ Nasdaq 100 index, a throw of the Russell 2000 index all advancing. The Sox making news today up 2.8%. No stranger to big moves up or down. But the Philadelphia Semiconductor Stock Exchange Index it is surging by 2.8%. S&P is your baseline up 6/10 of 1%. The Dow negative on the day down 2/10 of 1% Nasdaq ha by 1%. Nasdaq 100 index up 9/10 of 1%. The Russell 2000 index advancing now by about 8/10 of 1%. Bottom line stocks are trading higher as Americans head to the polls on Election day. We've got the two year yielding 4.61%, the ten year 4.94%, and gold is down $17, the ounce 3928, the ounce down 5/10 of 1%. A retreat for crude down 5/10 9594 a barrel. Brent 103 349 down now by 1.2%. Apple after earnings, it is declining by 1.9%, Palantir after earnings down 1.4%. And among the names coming up after the close of trading today, we will be hearing from Advanced Micro Devices up now by 4.8%, also reporting Arista Networks up 2.9%. Amgen after the bell as well, down now by 6/10 of 1%. So bottom line stocks pushing higher S&P up 6/10 of 1% Carolyn Tim that is on Bloomberg Businessweek. All right Charlie thank you so much. Carol Massar along with Tim Stenbeck live here at Bloomberg headquarters in New York City. As we've said, all 435 seats at the House of Representatives, roughly one third in the Senate are being contested. Early voting turnout has surpassed that of the same period for the 2022 midterms, and there are some key battleground states, and that's where we find several members of the Bloomberg team. Well, let's start in Michigan. Let's go there and we find Romaine Bostick, the host of Bloomberg's The Clothes. He's on the ground in Detroit. Also joining us Brooke Sutherland, Boston bureau chief for Bloomberg News in Portland, Maine. And Julie Fine, Texas bureau chief of Bloomberg News in our Dallas bureau. Romaine, I want to start with you and get the temperature on the ground between Abdul outside and Mike Rogers and what you've heard from voters thus far. Yeah, it's been a wild 48 hours. Of course, all the talk on Sunday was about Democratic Representative Haley Stevens throwing her support not behind her Democratic colleague Abdul El-Sayed, but behind his challenger, Republican Mike Rogers. I had a chance to catch up with his campaign yesterday as he capped off a statewide bus tour just about 30 minutes north of Detroit. He walked out on stage to Tom Petty's Won't Back Down, and he'd invoked Haley Stevens name several times, calling her, quote, courageous for choosing country over party. It'll be a remains to be seen as to whether her flip flopping will actually be enough to drive some of those more moderate Democrats over to the Republican side. Lisa yet has had a relatively strong lead in the polls over Mike Rogers now for several weeks, whereas he has, uh, I guess, really courted that progressive wing of the Democratic Party. But he's also made it clear that he can appeal to a lot of the moderates, not only on the Democratic side, but also on the Republican, a lot of disaffected Republican voters here in this state that feel like the past two years under President Trump have not necessarily delivered some of the promises with regards to affordability as well as some of the pledges, of course, to, uh, not enter any new wars as far as turnout. We should point out that in a typical presidential year, about 5.7 million Michiganders head to the polls in a midterm year, something around 4.5 million. It is widely expected we will exceed that 4.5 million mark this tonight, and maybe even potentially in this midterm year. Actually, you see the record for a presidential, uh, turnout, a presidential year turnout of about 5.7 million voters. Yeah, it does feel like remain all the numbers around this campaign and this election cycle. Certainly very interesting. All right. We know we will be checking with you throughout the day and the evening. Uh, let's now go to Maine, where longtime Senator Susan Collins, seeking to distance herself from President Trump, that we saw in the first debate, uh, with Democratic challenger Troy Jackson and has touted her willingness to break from the rest of the Republican Party in some key vote. So let's get to it. We had to Bloomberg's Brooke Sutherland, uh, she is in Portland, Maine right now. Uh, Brooke, let's talk about Senator Collins. She's really trying to hold on to a sixth term here. She is. And our reporter, Greg Ryan, was with Senator Collins in Houlton, Maine, today as she made two stops at local businesses. And she made the point that while some recent polls have showed Jackson with the lead, polls have consistently been wrong when it comes to Senator Collins specifically, in 2020, Collins bested her Democratic opponent by nine points. Even as President Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by nine points in that election, she was very confident, saying she thinks she's going to be celebrating a victory tonight and that she expects Republicans overall to hold on to a narrow majority in the Senate. Now, I will tell you, talking to people on the ground here. We are not expecting a quick announcement on the results of this race. Polls have shown that this is incredibly close. It's going to take a while to tabulate these ballots and to have a clear outcome here in Maine. But both parties are feeling good about their chances. Jackson, speaking at a bowling alley in Portland last night, delivered sort of a similar message of confidence, saying this is our time and that Democrats have a real shot in this contest. Brooke Southerland, Boston bureau chief for Bloomberg News in Portland, Maine. Brooke, thank you for that update. Now let's go to Texas. That's where we find Julie Fine, Texas bureau chief for Bloomberg News. She's in our Dallas bureau. All the talk. James Talarico, of course, taking Democrats biggest swing in years at winning Texas. This is a state that has an elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate going back to 1988. Voters there, many brimming with hope that it is the perfect storm to do so this year. Is it possible? I sure it's possible. It is an interesting storm. Right now you have the war, which is not popular here because of gas prices. You have a candidate in Ken Paxton that he certainly somewhat of a flawed candidate. The establishment Republicans would have much preferred to see John Cornyn in this race. So there are things that are working in the Democrats favor. Then you have James Talarico, who is running. He's a state representative who got really well known when he went on Joe Rogan's podcast. But he does lean towards the progressive in some of his thoughts and in some of his discussions earlier on. That will certainly play a role in this race. What people are paying attention to here is the amount of voters back in 2022, in the midterm election, There are 5.5 million people voted early. Now, in 2026, you have 7.7 million people that have voted early. The question is the group that has voted early plus who votes today? Is it Republicans that are saying, hey, we're going to come out, we're going to do this? Is it Democrats? Is it independents that are going the Democrats way? That is what the Democrats are going to need in order to do this. It's a tall order for a Democrat in the state of Texas. All right, Julie, thank you so much. Julie Fine, Texas bureau chief for Bloomberg News. Uh, Julie Romaine and, of course, Brooke, they're going to be on the ground tracking the races throughout the evening. All right. We want to stay on the elections. And to one of the hosts of Balance of Power. We're talking about Joe Matthew, he and Kelly Lyons. They'll be leading our election coverage this evening. Joe, good to have you here. Good to see you. You know, we love having you in town, my buddies. This is Art. Yeah. Um, this is kind of big, and I feel like the numbers we keep talking about early voting people showing up. Is that significant in your view? 57 million people is pretty darn significant. We're trying to figure out if we're just changing our habits and the way we do this. We all like to vote early, apparently. Or if there is in fact a surge of Democrats who decided to get out there. And there is a lot of energy in some states in North Carolina, we did see a significant lead in Democrats over unaffiliated Republicans, but not every state track season or so. It's a little bit hard. We don't want to go too far. Reading into early votes early, people were like, it doesn't matter. No, it's really trending to to not matter. It's not just, you know, old folks who can't get around and military members overseas. A lot of these were in-person early, but people just like getting it done. I've heard some folks in their 20s and 30s who work here at Bloomberg Carols raising their hand. You're in your 20s who say, you know what? It's just easy. I don't want to wait in line. I just had to get, you know, you my favorite person, you know, on Halloween, you got special Halloween. I voted, so you missed that one. It didn't make it to the polls by then. But, uh, Joe, the polling in the past has fooled especially Democrats before and Republicans. So like, I mean, I think back to ten years ago and Hillary Clinton versus President Donald Trump. Yeah. Uh, this could be I mean, look, the polls are saying this is likely to go in Democrats favor, but it kind of depends on deal, which part of it, you know, the House is going to be a that's a lower bar to clear. Just you've got history and a number of really difficult, uh, districts that are pointing clearly in the direction of Democrats. That's more of a question of, of, uh, of scale. What's the size of the majority that we're going to be talking about? If you think the Senate's going to flip? Look, a lot of people will explain to you why that's not possible. The speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, says all these polls are wrong, that the sample is flawed. If we wake up tomorrow morning and that's the case, there will be a reckoning. But I'll remind you that the prediction markets are pointing in the same direction as most of the polls. So if everybody is wrong here, then we need to really rewrite the rules. If they're right, we're literally rewriting the electoral map. If we're talking Texas, Kansas, South Carolina, This is not the country that we've been living in for the last few years. Well, you know, it was interesting earlier on Balance of Power. I heard you say something. How we're still talking about Donald Trump. And isn't that something? Yeah, I do think you're closer. What does it mean? Well, no one else has come along. I mean, Joe Biden is not going to be on the trail. And Kamala Harris wasn't welcome in a lot of places. So, yeah, if you're a Democrat, Barack Obama is still the most powerful messenger in the group. And of course, he went out of his way to spend time with Abdul El-Sayed. And that's going to be a big question tonight as to whether this this nominee and, you know, remain was talking about what's happening there on the ground is going to be able to close the deal. Uh, fascinating to hear from Brooke about Maine as well. By the way, you guys, I've been to Holton that I can't believe that's the last exit on 95 before the Canadian border. That's a candidate who wants to win. Uh, but, look, they've got to drive through the pine trees and take a lot of time to get these things. Uh, to get the ballots in in Alaska. Could be weeks before we know, uh, as they say. Can't get there from here. That's it. Bert, night. Um, so let's talk about some other battlegrounds. We did hear from our team around the country. There's also Kansas. Can I believe I'm saying Kansas. Well, we can't believe we're saying it. No. And boy, if you look at the New York Times Siena poll, all of these states we've mentioned so far are going to break for Democrats. Um, that brings us to the conversation about candidate quality. Roger Marshall, the senator there has been very closely tied to Trump, and there are a lot of ads running about how he sued patients. Uh, as a doctor, Marshall sued patients, uh, whose, uh, children he helped to deliver. It's a pretty ugly narrative. Uh, whether that ushers in a Democrat is a question. But pastor, uh, Adam Hamilton, who is running against, uh, is one of these sort of new style Democrats, not unlike James Talarico. These are both preachers. They're Democratic preachers who are making waves in very red states. So we'll just have to see if if they can connect the dots here. Kansas two had a record when it came to political ads to political advertising. The amount of money. Oh my God, they just continued. And they were shifting it from other states into Kansas when that appeared to be a real contest. How does that play what you talked about there's a lot of investing money, concerns about regulatory changes. If this is indeed a blue wave. The role of Elon Musk again I don't know. This intersection of money and politics not news. You know, our shows are like overlapping big time here. And I wonder in the days after the election how much you are talking about the potential for regulatory changes on AI, maybe. Are we going to have a national data center moratorium at some point if Democrats are in charge here? And what does it mean for 28? We start that conversation tomorrow because you still need that third leg of the stool there for all of this to happen. I'm glad you mentioned 2028. Um, many people probably are not glad we mentioned 2028, but I'm glad you did because it brings up something that might happen in the Democratic Party over the next few months. And that's the rise of the DSA, right? This election, what does that look like in the House? And we're going to spend some time in our in our 3:00 hour or two talking to Josh Greene, a little bit about splintering and factions within the Republican and Democratic Party. But the rise of the DSA over the last year has been pretty remarkable. We just had a great conversation about this with Jim Messina, Sarah Chamberlain, uh, dialed in as well. And Rick Davis has been ringing the bell on this. You got 18 DSA candidates likely inbound to the House and could expand a progressive caucus. That is a way bigger problem for Hakeem Jeffries than the Freedom Caucus has been for Mike Johnson. This is a big ask for a situation in my hometown. There you go. And so if anyone offers the resolution to impeach Donald Trump, it's probably going to come from that group. And that is exactly what Hakeem Jeffries probably does not want. That's why it will be very important for him to have a bigger majority so he can control some of those members. I want to ask you, you know, my husband and I were talking. I said, I'm going to vote early because I want to go to the polls. I want to see if there's any kind of political interference. What are you hearing? What are we seeing? We know the Justice Department announced, I think, earlier today, sending, uh, roughly 1000 federal election monitors to all 50 states to observe election day voting monitoring program. Not new, but. Right. And we knew that they were going to do that. There is some concern about this. These Westchester headlines are confounding today. Uh, a lot of folks are finding them. So they guess the scanners are not working. The attorney general, Letitia James, is telling people, stay in line. Vote. Your vote will be counted. But you start here in headlines like this. And they can manifest themselves on social media in ways that are not correct. Everyone who votes in Westchester County, from what we understand, will have their vote counted. Stay in line. It's true. Um, but I can guarantee you there's going to be a report later on today that talks about some potential malfeasance. And then these things take on a life of their own. We don't want to let that happen. Right. You mentioned watching the regulatory front and certainly questions about what it means for AI, what it means for other parts of business that have gotten used to a Trump regulatory environment these next two years. If Democrats do indeed take the House and potentially take the Senate, what are the companies or sectors we need to watch? Well, look, it's going to be less about probably regulations or new laws and more about oversight and lots of hearings that we're going to be talking. Remember, you'll be up here, your golf voice ready, talking about which lawmakers asking a question, because you'll have the CEOs of any number of major companies who donated to the ballroom, right, who have been involved in crypto companies working A lot of names who are probably regulars for our audience and may not be household names are going to be drawn to Washington. Beginning with Elon Musk, who has already threatened retribution. If you come after me, I'm coming after you, is what he said on exit. I have to take him at his word, especially since I think he's got a lot of data. Government data. Funny, he has a lot of satellites as well, and a lot of government contracts that will be the basis of this oversight conversation and money too, that he's spent in tax. A little bit of money. He's topped George Soros. He is now the most prolific political, uh, fundraiser or guest donator, uh, of all time, and certainly this campaign cycle. But we're also in a campaign where we're questioning the value of money. Imagine this if you look at the amount that's been spent, it's like it's like CapEx for Amazon or $12 billion. We don't know what we're going to get for it. The king of earned media is still the head of the Republican Party. So does it matter? I don't know, it's crazy. Crazy. Um, you're going to be covering it alive. Caleb will be here probably when you guys get back here. All right, so do you know Matthew, of course, cohost of Balance of Power. Check out our evening election coverage. Joe is back at 5 p.m. on balance of power. Tune in at 7 p.m. for full team coverage of the election results led by Joe, Matthew and Kelly Lines. And then keep in mind our website, bloomberg.com. It's all open for free, so check out all the election coverage. If you're not a subscriber, subscriber. Not to worry, you can check out all the coverage for free. Free. It's 221 on Wall Street. We do check markets all day long here at Bloomberg. We have got the Dow lower the S&P NASDAQ Nasdaq 100 index. They are advancing right now S&P up 41. We've got tech stocks leading the index higher Nasdaq is up by 1%. The S&P up 5/10 Nasdaq 100 index up just about 9/10 of 1% S&P 500 index by the way 3.4% below its all time high set on October 6th of this year. Again the S&P up 5/10. Right now the Sox up by 2.6%. That is the Philadelphia Stock Exchange's semiconductor index. The two year yield at 4.61%. We've got the tenure at 4.94%. Gold meanwhile down 6/10 of 1% 3924 the ounce, while West Texas Intermediate creep lower by 5/10 of 1% 9596 A barrel. Brent 103 58 barrel of Brent crude down by 1.1%. Taco Bell shares are higher, actually. Yum brands, which is the parent of Taco Bell. But Taco Bell is showing signs of recovery about three months after that parasite outbreak hurt results comparable sales up 1% so far this quarter. Taco Bell says visits by so-called heavy Taco Bell users have fully recovered to pre outbreak levels, while lighter users are tracking to 95% of their prior frequency. Yum! Brands up to by 5/10 of 1%. Recapping S&P 500 index up 39 points, up by about 5/10 of 1%. Carolyn. Tim, that is a Bloomberg business flash. All right Charlie, thanks so much. Well, the U.S. economy picked up steam ahead of next week's, uh, this week's tomorrow's today's midterm elections. Third quarter gross domestic product, rising at the fastest pace in a year. And a measure of inflation rose in September by the most in six months. So really highlighting the persistent disconnect between the strength of the economy and how Americans feel about it. Voters are, no doubt about it, concerned about affordability. And it's something that many of our guests on Bloomberg have highlighted. Pimco is rich Claire to Neil Richardson from ADP among them. We can't list all the voices in some audio video that we want to play to you, but we still wanted to feel and share with you. Kind of what feels like has been a nonstop drumbeat from our guests on affordability. The first voice that you will hear is Schwab's Kevin Gordon. You see it survey after survey, anecdote after anecdote. But younger people today, especially in Gen Z, they just don't really believe in that classic American dream. And the American Dream is being, you know, running past us. We do and have had a K shape economy for some time, but the K, the branches of the K have been diverging more widely in the last 6 or 7 years. 47% of Americans, according to our research, saw real wage declines over the last four years because of inflation. So this is why consumer sentiment is dismal. Trump's tariffs, the war in Iran, both of which have jacked prices up for consumers. Cities like New York, in states like California, where housing has become, you know, impossibly unaffordable. And we have the midterms coming up and people are thinking about the economy. But every politician should be talking about housing affordability. Health care is climbing. And whether you shift it to the worker or you, you know, assume it as the small business. They still have to be dealt with and a lot of people work just for benefits. It's not just about the paycheck. It may not be true in the world that we live in, but for the majority of people retiring, they cannot afford to give up 10 or 20% of their Social Security. All right. That was various voices recently on Bloomberg Television and radio. That last voice, former U.S. Treasury secretary under President Obama, Jack Lew. And on this election day, this is what people are talking about. Affordability. Yeah. Giving President Trump poor marks for his handling of the cost of living, inflation still being high. That's the number one and ultimately most important issue to them on affordability and the pricing behaviors of some businesses. We've got Bloomberg's max traffic, and he recently reported on the left leaning nonprofit Groundwork Collaborative. It's focused on what it calls, quote, surveillance pricing. It's the idea that retailers such as Walmart might charge customers different prices for items in stores and online, based on the data that companies have collected. Malcolm, Max joins us right here in studio, joining us also remotely from Washington, D.C.. Is Lindsey Owens the subject of his reporting? President and CEO of Groundwork Collaborative and Groundwork Action. She is the author of Gouge The End of a Fair Price and What That Means for Your Wallet. Um, Lindsey, good to have you here. Max is back with us. We've talked with Max about your work, just briefly, for those who may have missed it. Just remind us about your work on pricing and what you found out. Yeah. So I just wrote a book called gouge that really explores what I think of as the reinvention of the rip off. Pricing used to be simple. Companies figured out how much it cost to make an item. They put their margin on top and they stuck it on a sticker. And that's not how pricing works today. It's a highly engineered science. Companies hire physicists. They acquire AI companies to help them get better and better at figuring out exactly how much they can get us to fork over for every item in our grocery cart, for every item in our online shopping cart. Um, and so that's the shift that my book really identifies. Um, and I also think it really resonates with Americans right now who are headed to the ballot boxes, uh, who are quite worried about, uh, the role of corporate price gouging and corporate power in their lives and frankly, in Washington. Yeah. That's what was so interesting to me about this work. Just the fact that you often hear people talk about affordability as if it's only inflation and tariffs, it's just about, um, rising prices. But of course, it's also as Lindsay saying, this sense that many, many people feel that big companies are not pricing fairly or that technology in some sort of form, whether it's it's explicitly I or kind of I behind some kind of pricing algorithm is making the economy feel less fair. And I think that's, you know, it not only explains what we've seen in Trump's approval numbers and in, in, in sort of some of the, the polling that we've seen heading into Election Day. Um, But it also explains this general sense in this country where people are mad about data centers, they're mad about AI, they're mad about executives. There's there's a lot here. Lindsey, we're going to get to what could happen if Democrats do get control of the House and potentially even the Senate, uh, come January. But I'm wondering what companies are allowed to do right now when it comes to pricing. What what are they prohibited from doing? What are they allowed to do? Yeah. It's interesting. I mean, we haven't had price controls in this country for decades. Um, so, you know, broadly speaking, you know, companies set their own prices and they have a lot of leeway in how they set those prices. Um, companies are allowed to run AB tests. Um, as my organization, um, has spent a lot of time exposing late last year, um, you know, we helped the American public understand that Instacart was running pretty sophisticated AB tests on millions of Americans while they shopped for groceries. Um, but they were pretty consequential. Um, some Americans were paying 23% more for a dozen eggs from the exact same grocery store at the exact same time. Um, and over the course of a year, those differences could really add up. We thought, uh, let's take a look at what Instacart says a household of four spends on groceries in a year. And we estimated that they're AB testing. If you were on the losing end of the AB test, it could be $1,200 for your family in a given year. Um, so there's a lot that we allow corporations to do with pricing. Um, you know, we allow corporations to use algorithms to recommend prices. But in my book, I detail how some of those algorithms and those recommendations can result in price fixing. Um, so I think there's a lot that's legal. There are a lot. There's a lot that's in the gray area. And frankly, from my perspective, there's a lot that we need to take a look at because it really shouldn't be illegal anymore. Lindsay, a lot of the retailers who have, uh. Who? Who? You have criticized her? Have you done research on have responded to this essentially by saying that it's all bogus in one way or another? Um, you know, Instacart, uh, initially said that, you know, essentially wasn't doing anything. And then, um, and then it ended some of these experiments. But they have broadly criticized this stuff as somewhere between, you know, misinformation and conspiracy theory. And I'm kind of curious what you make of that response. Yeah. Look, I mean, I think the fact that Instacart decided to stop running these experiments two weeks after we released the study is probably the best data point for answering this question. Um, the American public spoke up, um, and Instacart said, you know what? We got this one wrong. We shouldn't have been running these experiments. Um, they said, look, when you come to Instacart, from now on, the same person should get the same price for the same item at the same store. Um, so, you know, in my and in my estimation, I think we, you know, we had a smoking gun and hardly a conspiracy theory. I mean, we really caught them red handed and they ultimately folded and cried uncle and abandoned the practices, which is great. I mean, it's great when companies, um, you know, are disciplined by consumers in the marketplace who say, no thanks. You know, this is too much for me. This isn't fair. We think you've touched the stove. So do you think that that era is over? I mean, that companies are just giving up on this stuff? Not entirely. No. I mean, we saw, um, you know, Starbucks just this week in an earnings call, um, talking about a new era of personalization at Starbucks. Um, from when you walk into the store. Um, yeah, they're going to be crappy. Wrong, Lindsay. Personalization. So I'm going to get exactly what I want. I mean, I read it and you're going to pay what they want. You know, what's crazy is I increasingly feel like there's so much data about all of us, right? And we just don't know it's out there and companies do. And I also just think about the conversation we have with Joe Matthew, who's leading our election coverage. And Max, I want to bring you into this too. You know, you cover Elon Musk. So much money in politics. And I think about who is the Ralph Nader era of really someone speaking out for people. And obviously Lindsay and her team are doing this, but it's just who's out there really getting the attention of politicians. I mean, you're seeing a lot of money in politics, but you're also seeing that a backlash to that. And so simultaneously. So, for instance, like one of the races tonight that I'm paying a lot of attention to is a Texas Senate race, because Elon Musk has put, you know, between various PACs and so on, more than $200 million into Bill Paxton backing Bill Paxton's, uh, election as a senator in Texas and the and at the same time, James Talarico, who in polling is running ahead of PACs and is running ads, essentially saying Elon Musk is trying to buy a Senate seat. He wants your land. He wants your power there. You know, this really strong populist language that's placing Paxton's alliance with Musk as a liability. So I think the thing we don't yet know is whether this money is working, whether it's helping, maybe it's going to help Republicans hold a, uh, Senate seat in Texas or if it's going to backfire and it just turns into a yet another data point in a story that you're seeing increasingly from progressives, which is that the Republican Party under Donald Trump has gotten too close to big companies. So, Lindsey, come on back. You formerly, uh, were a staffer for Elizabeth Warren. So I'm just curious, you know, your role in what politics politicians can really do for people, the average she'd like to see? Yeah. I mean, I'd like to see a lot of changes in the next Congress, of course, depending a little bit on how the election results shake out tonight. But the first thing I would like to see is a different approach to oversight and accountability from Congress. You know, I staffed the Judiciary Committee for a member in 2019. Um, you know, the last time that Trump was in office and the Democrats took the gavel in the House, and one of the things that I noticed is they were really laser focused on the Trump administration and sort of what what looked to many Americans like a partisan gambit and not as focused on what Americans, um, were feeling in their pocketbooks and what Americans really cared about from their elected officials. And so, you know, in January, I would like to see if Democrats take the gavel instead of investigating what I call the HGTV hearings, you know, going after the renovations of the reflecting pool or the renovations of the Kennedy Center or the renovations of the ballroom. You know, I'd like to them to bring in the CEOs who are deploying these pricing techniques that are emptying our wallets and ask them the hard questions, issue the subpoenas to them to try to get a better sense of exactly what's driving this affordability crisis and start to use those conversations to remedy them. We shall see. Lindsay Owens, thank you so much. President, CEO, Groundwork Collaborative and Groundwork action. Her book is gouge. And of course, our Max Chaffin Bloomberg Businessweek senior reporter. Check out his reporting on Lindsey and groundwork. Uh, it is on the Turnpike without any money. It's 240 on Wall Street. We do check markets all day long here a Bloomberg. The Dow lower has been down all day. But the S&P, Nasdaq, the Nasdaq 100 index and the Russell 2000 index are all advancing. A chip rally is powering today's stock gains. Right now we have the Sox the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index. It is up by 2.4%. S&P has a baseline up 2.4 up up 0.4% right now Nasdaq up 0.9%. The Nasdaq 100 index up 5.7%. The Russell 2000 index of small cap shares higher by 6/10 of 1%. Again the Dow lower down, 3/10 of 1%. We've got the Sox, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange semiconductor index up 2.3% to your yield, 4.60% with a ten year, 4.94% goal, down 5/10 of 1% 3924 the ounce. West Texas Intermediate crude 9628 a barrel. Down now by 2/10 of 1%. Bitcoin up 1%. $77,500 on Bitcoin again WTI down 2/10 of 1%. Barrel of Brent lower by 9/10 of 1%. Job cuts on the way to The Walt Disney Company, sources told Bloomberg Disney is moving toward thousands of cuts, with the entertainment giant asking some managers to target 20% in annual cost savings, though sources say the savings could come from job eliminations as well as expense reductions. Shares of The Walt Disney Company right now just below $114. They're up by 8/10 of 1% for On-Demand use 24 hours a day. Subscribe to Bloomberg News Now wherever you get your podcasts. Carolyn. Tim. That is a Bloomberg Businessweek. All right, Charlie, thank you so much. This, as we've said already, uh, already been the most expensive election in U.S. history, exceeding even the 2024 presidential race. Total spending on campaign ads this year projected to surpass $12 billion, with Senate races in Texas, Ohio, Michigan and California leading the pack. That's according to ad impact. A full disclosure Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg L.P., the parent company of Bloomberg Radio, has been a major donor to Democratic candidates and causes this election cycle. All right. We got to talk more about the money in politics. Let's head back to D.C. and our own Bill Allison. He's Bloomberg News campaign finance reporter. Hey, Bill. Um, as I kidded with, uh, the team earlier, and Joe Matthew, the real winner, perhaps are those involved in the political ad space because they have made a lot of money. Why so much this year? I think it's. There's a bunch of different factors that are sort of driving this. Uh, first of all, you just have a lot at stake with Congress being in the hands of the Republican Party, uh, the white House and has the Republican Party. Um, and I think that there's really has been a concerted effort, um, on the part of Republicans to hang on to those majorities. And Democrats have not been shy about giving money either. But, you know, but Republicans have had this huge advantage. And then there's some quirky things that added a few hundred million here and there. Tom Stivers, uh, California campaign, uh, there's been some referendums that have been really expensive. So there's, there's, uh, I think, though, that that really what is what it comes down to is, is that when so much is at stake, when there's so much power entrenched in Washington and state capitals that you see the money following the power, and that's why we're seeing more money poured into this cycle than we have in previous cycles. Bill, does it work? That is something that we want for coffee tomorrow morning. Um, without a lot of money to spend for unknown efficacy. Yeah. You know, I mean, social scientists have looked at this, and there's there's different theories as to what the impact of particularly on like, you know, everything from political ad spending to, you know, canvassing, you know, there's theories that if you start knocking on people's doors in March instead of in on September, that they'll remember better and they'll come to the polls. Uh, it's there's a real question about whether any of this stuff works, but just the fact that so much is spent on it, I think that somebody, somewhere must think it works, and we'll see how it turns out. He was a consultant to get paid. Think it works? I was going to say, you know who must it must think it. It works as Musk thinks it works. I mean, if you think about Elon Musk ponying up, what, almost half $1 billion in the current election cycle, um, it's a lot of money. Yeah. He's, uh, if you just look at his super PACs, They've spent $289 million, the two that he's funding himself. And then he spent a lot of money around elsewhere. So, yeah, he's about 455 million that he's given so far. They'll see on December 3rd the final tally he may get to have a billion. Uh, it looks like he probably will. And, you know, I it's it's something that, you know, is I'm old enough to remember when somebody's making $1 million donation to a super PAC was huge now, which feels hardly newsworthy when somebody does that. Yeah. Uh, with the amount of money that's being poured in. But, you know, our system is, uh, you know, it's wide open to this kind of money. And it's. And what sort of is amazing, though, is how much of it goes to the same old things like, you know, there's only it's not like the mechanics of politics have changed so much. You know, there's television ads, there's now there's digital and streaming services and then there's canvassing, knocking on doors. There's text messages which are new, but, um, but really it's it's the same kind of thing of just trying to get your message out to the voters, and that costs money. And there's more of it than there's ever been before in terms of special interests. Uh, you know, I've spoken a lot in the past two years about Fair Shake and the crypto industry and the effect that that had on the 2024 elections, specifically Sherrod Brown seat, uh, in Ohio. Sherrod Brown could become a senator again if he does pull this off, uh, today. And we'll find out perhaps later this week. Where has the crypto money been this year? It doesn't sound like it has had. Um. That has. It doesn't sound like it's having the same influence that it had a couple of years ago. It's. Yeah, it's, uh, they are spending they did put about $30 million late into the Ohio Senate race, which is incidentally speaking about mixing. Uh, it's more than 500 and, um, 27 million has been spent in Ohio. And of that, 515 million is in the general election, which is just astounding. I mean, uh, you know, Texas is like 5 or 6 million. Uh, so, uh, high was incredibly expensive. So fair shake is one of the players there. But I think that because there are so many other big players, that fair shake has kind of gotten a little bit drowned out almost, you know, like they had about 100 million, 150 million to spend the cycle. They spent a lot in, in primaries again and trying to get like the kinds of candidates that they want, uh, you know, weeding out in the primary when so many districts are not competitive because of gerrymandering and all that other kind of stuff. I mean, they had, uh, they did spend a lot in the primaries, but yeah, uh, they didn't there is not kind of like, uh, in in 2024, you had sort of the Katie Porter Adam Schiff primary in California. That was sort of a, uh, marquee event that put them on the map. They haven't had a moment like that in this cycle. And maybe if Sherrod Brown goes down and somebody can point to a fair shake, ad is making the difference in the minds of Ohio voters, and then they'll have had that impact. But so far they haven't feel any nuances beyond that. This is obviously a record year, as we talked at the beginning, um, we know private equity and money managers have donated more to Republicans than Democrats this year for the first time in a decade. Um, donations to Republican candidates and committees, nearly 70% higher than those two Democrats. I mean, any other nuances that you noticed as we went through the election cycle and season? I think the so, I mean, a couple of things that, you know, and this is kind of isn't it doesn't make people happy when you say it. But if you look at sort of where money is coming from, Democrats got a lot more of the so-called dark money, the money that's given through nonprofits. So it makes it a little bit harder to track who their donors are. And I don't know if maybe this is like a, um, you know, there's several reasons why people give to the nonprofits, which in turn then give to the superPACs. Um, one of which is that the nonprofits do a lot more than just pay for, like, attack ads, like they'll do, you know, voter registration and other things like that can be more attractive to donors who are giving. But, Um, but I think that the, the other big thing that we saw the cycle is, is, is sort of the influence of, of I super PACs and, and it was such a different story from crypto where crypto super PACs all kind of were like, um, following the same strategy. They were bipartisan, Republican, Democrat. And we're going to elect the most friendly people for crypto that we can. Um, in the world of I, you had this kind of battle between the the two competing factions, kind of like the, the OpenAI world, which is more interested in a single federal regulatory standard than you have, uh, anthropic, which is interested in on a more stringent regulatory standards for, for AI and that money kind of cancel each other out. Uh, you know, with all the spending that they did, and sometimes they would be on opposite sides in the single primary. So, um, I think that what we're seeing that's different, though, is, uh, and we're taking into account the amount of dark money is that you're seeing a lot more transactional kind of, um, business oriented donations than you did in the past. And people who are giving and it may be like a high level, kind of like philosophical thing with what kind of government do you want? We want Republicans and Democrats, okay. And what they need help. But yeah, it's it's kind of much more bottom line. Okay. Interesting interesting. Bill Allison, it always is money in politics. He is Bloomberg News campaign finance reporter in D.C.. Bill, thanks so much. Coming up, a check on trading and stocks on the move. This is Bloomberg Businessweek daily with Carol Massar and Tim Stent event on Bloomberg Radio and television. All right, everybody. Uh, we are close to the last hour of trading on this Election day. Tuesday, November 3rd, 2026 Carol Massar Tim Novak live here at Bloomberg headquarters in New York City. On a day where we are seeing a little bit higher on the S&P 500, kind of an even split between winners and losers within the index, just up about one third of 1%. Nasdaq 100, uh, up about 6/10 of a percent too. But, uh, what's really leading the way, though? Semiconductors. We're rallying in a big way. Uh, yeah. I mean, also the big question about, you know, a company like Apple last night, what it said. We have AMD later. So yeah, we'll get it. We're continuing its middle of earnings season. Uh, still. And um, even though we're squarely focused on midterm elections, it's kind of weird. It is weird. Yeah. In our 4:00 hour, we are covering AMD and Apple in the 3:00 hour. Do not worry. Everybody will be on it. Can you remind us we have jobs report on Friday. Jobs report on Friday? Yeah, for the month of October. It happens folks, once a month. Yeah. So, like, you know what we were talking about yesterday? Um, you know, we move on with our lives after the election. It's not. It's not after the election. Well, I think it's interesting how many investment folks have said, listen, whatever the outcome, what's interesting is you kind of cross it up off, you know, the outcome, and then you move forward. You can make decisions based on who is going to be making up, um, Congress, uh, and in particular the House of Representatives, but even the Senate, if it swings to the blue. But before that, a lot of pizza will be consumed in newsrooms around the country. I think it's fair to say yes, indeed. I'm Carol Massar along with Tim Stenbeck. Let's get to some stocks on the move this election Day Tuesday with us as Bloomberg TV markets correspondent. Norah. Melinda, Norah, um, you've got, uh, a couple of tech names. So let's start with meta platforms. Yes. Meta. We are seeing shares of the company hired by about 2.2% right now. And this comes after news that the company is selling debt for the very first time in six months. And it's really offering investors just sit with that for the first time. I know, in six months, right. It just tells you, when we think about a lot of this happening in the tech industry more broadly, that it is just the half year mark that we're calling out here for the size and scope. But investors, uh, seeing attractive yields on this as it attempts to really lure buyers, we know that this is amid a lot of growing skepticism that we've been seeing within the eye trade in terms of big tech's massive spending on artificial intelligence. And so investors have actually pleased as much as $58 billion of orders. But the company looking to raise at least 15 billion from a US dollar bond offering. And it's actually the biggest portion of a cross-border fundraising effort expected to reach at least $20 billion in total there. Wow. And so looking at the expected free cash flow for for meta this year, what is that. Negative. Mhm. Mhm. Negative. Expected free cash flow. That would mean there is no correct rookie translation. Free cash flow or lack thereof. Right, right. Just such a different environment. Uh, and time will tell how this turns out. That's the estimate for 2026, I should know. Okay. Is it? Yeah. All right, so that's Metta. Metta, let's go on over to Palantir. Palantir shares with this company lower by about 2% right now. Uh ticker lt R and this is despite another blowout quarter. We're seeing stock being pressured. U.S. commercial revenue did grow about 149% from a year ago. But those results were ultimately overshadowed by the outlook that points of a potential slowdown when it comes to sales growth for the company. So that's what you're seeing, really weighing on sentiment as it relates to the stock that we know. That has pretty much been on a tear. If you look at past years, um, investors getting some pretty strong returns. But clearly, uh, you know, it's a bit of a harsh response that we're seeing here. Investors aren't really satisfied. I guess the question, too, about politics of this, um, because it is midterm election day, is, is, you know, this is a company that has been closely aligned with the Trump administration and the Trump administration's defense priorities and offensive priorities as well. So what what happens, if anything? And in a environment that potentially could be, um, run by Democrats, I'm looking at 2025 revenue on the desk page. Uh, just kind of digging a little bit deeper. And so you're talking about 2.4 billion in 2025 revenue for government business, and then about 2.1 billion for commercial. And even if they're trying to kind of widen out, it just reminds you of the exposure. Yeah. When it comes to go, is there an easy transition to the happiest place on Earth? That would be a no. Okay. Uh, you know, they call it they call it the House of mouse. But after screen time this year, I'm wondering if they should start calling it the House of Bluey. Okay, we're talking about Disney, right? We are. We are, in fact, pretty sad, right? Yeah. I don't know, or is I don't think it's sad. I think it just shows the power of Bluey. Oh that's fair. Ahead. At least in the US, there's no ticker dis for Disney. Uh, it's up about 6/10 of a percent right now. But there was an interesting Bloomberg exclusive on the terminal that we've really been monitoring. And that's the fact that Walt Disney is moving toward thousands of layoffs, and managers are actually being asked to find 20% in annual cost savings. And sources telling Bloomberg that the CEO plans to reinvest some of those savings back into the company, hopefully pointing that into film and then also TV programming. So we'll see how this all shakes out. The stock's up only about 2/10 of a percent on the years. So not too much action there, but it's interesting to see how they're thinking about, you know, cost savings and where they really want to redirect that money. Yeah, I mean, I always it always kind of blows my mind. But I get it. You know, they're making job cuts in. The stock is up so. Mhm. Even just a little bit. But um and it might not all the savings might not all come from job cuts like it could come from, you know sitting there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's like just cautious business. I don't know we're not taking trips like Caruso. Business instead of first class is. Oh you're not taking it. Oh, no. Yeah. Right. Not business. Okay. Take care of business. Okay. Wicked, wicked. As you said, the stock is flat on the air. All right, that is, uh, a look at some of the stocks on the move here. Melinda. Thank you. Check out our stock movers podcast. Five minute episodes. Big winners and losers in the stock market. You can find it on Apple, Spotify or anywhere you get your podcasts. We will continue on Bloomberg Businessweek daily on Bloomberg Radio. If you're watching on television, the close is coming your way.