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How Elon Musk and Big Tech Poured Millions Into the Midterms, and Lost

Save this story. This week on Uncanny Valley, Hugo Lowell, David Gilbert, and Vittoria Elliott from WIRED’s politics team join Leah Feiger to break down how Democrats flipped both the House and the Senate, and why the MAGA base is pinning the losses on Trump and the Iran war. We look at how more than $400 million from Elon Musk’s super PAC largely came up empty, why voters restricted 39 of 40 data center ballot measures in what WIRED called the data center referendum, why election deniers suddenly went quiet, and what it all means for 2028.

保存这篇报道。本周在《恐怖谷》（Uncanny Valley）节目中，来自《连线》（WIRED）政治团队的雨果·洛厄尔（Hugo Lowell）、大卫·吉尔伯特（David Gilbert）和维多利亚·埃利奥特（Vittoria Elliott）与莉亚·费格（Leah Feiger）一起，深入剖析了民主党如何翻盘众议院和参议院，以及为何“让美国再次伟大”（MAGA）阵营将失利归咎于特朗普和伊朗战争。我们探讨了埃隆·马斯克（Elon Musk）的超级政治行动委员会投入的超过4亿美元资金为何大多打了水漂，选民为何在被称为“数据中心公投”的投票中否决了40项数据中心提案中的39项，选举否认者为何突然销声匿迹，以及这一切对2028年大选意味着什么。

Articles mentioned in this episode: Democrats Sweep Republicans in Nearly Every Race That Matters; Voters Set $400 Million of Elon Musk’s Money on Fire; The Biggest Pro-AI Super PAC Network Didn’t Really Impact the Midterms; ‘I’m 100 Percent at War With Trump’: MAGA Revolts After Midterms Wipeout; Knives Are Out in the White House; The Results Are In: Voters Hate Data Centers; Election Deniers Aren’t Contesting Their Massive Losses.

本期节目提到的文章包括：《民主党在几乎所有关键选区横扫共和党》、《选民烧掉了埃隆·马斯克4亿美元的资金》、《最大的亲人工智能超级政治行动委员会网络并未对中期选举产生实质影响》、《“我与特朗普百分之百处于战争状态”：中期选举惨败后MAGA阵营的反叛》、《白宫内斗升级》、《结果出炉：选民厌恶数据中心》、《选举否认者并未对他们的惨败提出异议》。

Brian Barrett: Welcome to WIRED’s Uncanny Valley. I’m Brian Barrett, executive editor. Zoë Schiffer: I’m Zoë Schiffer, contributing editor. Leah Feiger: Not this week, folks. Sorry, Zoë and Brian. The midterms have just wrapped up and the politics team is taking over the feed. Welcome to WIRED’s Uncanny Valley. I am Leah Feiger, director of politics and science. This week we’re bringing you a special midterms episode. I’m joined by three of my WIRED colleagues, Hugo Lowell, a senior correspondent covering the Trump White House.

布莱恩·巴雷特（Brian Barrett）：欢迎收听《连线》的《恐怖谷》。我是执行编辑布莱恩·巴雷特。佐伊·希弗（Zoë Schiffer）：我是特约编辑佐伊·希弗。莉亚·费格：这周不行了，各位。抱歉，佐伊和布莱恩。中期选举刚刚结束，政治团队接管了节目。欢迎收听《连线》的《恐怖谷》。我是政治与科学总监莉亚·费格。本周我们为大家带来一期中期选举特别节目。与我一同参与的是我的三位《连线》同事，负责报道特朗普白宫的资深记者雨果·洛厄尔。

Hugo Lowell: Hey, everyone. Leah Feiger: David Gilbert, senior reporter who focuses on disinformation and extremism. David Gilbert: Hello. Good to be here. Leah Feiger: And senior writer Vittoria Elliott, who focuses on the internal machinations of the US government. Vittoria Elliott: Good to be here, Leah.

雨果·洛厄尔：大家好。莉亚·费格：还有专注于虚假信息和极端主义的资深记者大卫·吉尔伯特。大卫·吉尔伯特：大家好，很高兴来到这里。莉亚·费格：以及专注于美国政府内部运作的资深撰稿人维多利亚·埃利奥特。维多利亚·埃利奥特：很高兴来到这里，莉亚。

Leah Feiger: We’ll get into how these candidates supported by Elon Musk and AI super PACs ended up faring and why these elections were rebuked by Americans of not just the current government, but also of Big Tech. So the Democrats needed a net gain of four seats in the Senate and three in the House. They blew by both. What were your biggest shocks of the evening, everyone?

莉亚·费格：我们将深入探讨那些由埃隆·马斯克和人工智能超级政治行动委员会支持的候选人最终表现如何，以及为什么美国选民不仅对现任政府，也对大型科技公司表达了不满。民主党在参议院需要净增四个席位，在众议院需要净增三个席位。他们轻松超越了这两个目标。各位，当晚最让你们感到震惊的是什么？

David Gilbert: Well, because I am based in Ireland, I woke up on Wednesday morning and the landscape had just completely changed. Even people who were in deep red states like Arizona, like Mark Lamb, who was a certainty to win, his race still hasn’t been drawn. It’s just exceptional.

大卫·吉尔伯特：嗯，因为我常驻爱尔兰，周三早上醒来时，局势已经完全改变了。即使是在像亚利桑那州这样的深红州，像马克·兰姆（Mark Lamb）这样胜券在握的人，他的选区结果至今仍未确定。这简直太不可思议了。

Vittoria Elliott: I was floored by how tight Mississippi is and the win in South Carolina. I would not have put my money on that. Incredible. Hugo Lowell: Yeah, I agree with Tori. South Carolina, Darline Graham was handpicked by Trump and endorsed by him to win that race. And it was not this close in previous cycles.

维多利亚·埃利奥特：密西西比州的选情如此胶着，以及南卡罗来纳州的胜选结果，让我感到震惊。我本来不会把赌注押在那上面的。太不可思议了。雨果·洛厄尔：是的，我同意托里的看法。在南卡罗来纳州，达琳·格雷厄姆（Darline Graham）是特朗普亲自挑选并背书的候选人，旨在赢得那场竞选。在之前的选举周期中，选情从未如此接近。

Leah Feiger: To inherit her brother’s seat. Hugo Lowell: Insane. And she ended up losing it. And then also in Mississippi, the fact that Cindy Hyde-Smith, who’s been in the Senate a long time, was once considered to be a very, very safe incumbent losing in deep red Mississippi. I mean, it’s not been called yet, but that was also a massive shock.

莉亚·费格：为了继承她哥哥的席位。雨果·洛厄尔：太疯狂了。结果她还是输了。还有在密西西比州，辛迪·海德-史密斯（Cindy Hyde-Smith）已经在参议院任职很长时间，曾被认为是非常稳固的现任议员，却在深红的密西西比州落败。我的意思是，虽然结果还没正式宣布，但这同样是一个巨大的冲击。

And I think what really stood out to me was having been at Trump’s election night party in 2024 for that presidential run and how everyone there was talking about how Trump had put together this historic coalition, was making big gains in all sorts of places where they didn’t expect to and took all of the battleground states. What happened on Tuesday night, on election night was a reversal of all of those gains and then some.

我认为真正让我印象深刻的是，我曾参加过特朗普2024年总统竞选之夜的派对，当时每个人都在谈论特朗普如何建立了一个历史性的联盟，在各种意想不到的地方取得了巨大进展，并拿下了所有摇摆州。而周二选举之夜发生的事情，是对所有这些成果的逆转，甚至有过之而无不及。

I mean, if you think about Trump winning double digits in battleground states and then seeing what happened on Tuesday, those states swung 10 points back in the other direction for Democrats. And it just, I think, goes to show how in 18 months and 20 months, Trump has managed to undo everything and all of the goodwill that Republicans have built up in the ‘24 election cycle through all of his vanity projects, all of the cuts with DOGE, all of his acts in the federal government, and really the fact that he led the country into an unpopular war that led to higher prices, which are even more unpopular.

我的意思是，如果你考虑到特朗普在摇摆州曾以两位数的优势获胜，再看看周二发生的事情，这些州向民主党方向回摆了10个百分点。我认为这恰恰说明了在过去18到20个月里，特朗普是如何通过他所有的虚荣项目、政府效率部（DOGE）的所有削减措施、他在联邦政府的所有行为，以及他领导国家卷入一场不受欢迎的战争并导致物价上涨（这更不受欢迎）的事实，成功地摧毁了共和党在2024年选举周期中建立的一切成果和善意。

Leah Feiger: Absolutely. I mean, I was messaging with Democrats on Tuesday night who were telling me that they really couldn’t have, in their wildest dreams, thought that this was going to happen. It wasn’t like just picking up Maine or just picking up South Carolina. It was Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Iowa, Kansas, South Carolina, Michigan. And obviously for Republicans, the blame game has started. This was an unpopular president leading an unpopular war with a variety of, as you mentioned, policies that really hit home for a lot of Americans and residents.

莉亚·费格：绝对是这样。周二晚上我和民主党人发信息时，他们告诉我，他们做梦也没想到会发生这种情况。这不仅仅是拿下了缅因州或南卡罗来纳州，而是缅因州、北卡罗来纳州、俄亥俄州、得克萨斯州、爱荷华州、堪萨斯州、南卡罗来纳州和密歇根州。显然，共和党内部的指责游戏已经开始了。这是一位不受欢迎的总统，领导着一场不受欢迎的战争，并推行了正如你所提到的那些真正影响到许多美国人和居民生活的政策。

So Trump, after the election, blamed the quality of the candidates and the fact that he wasn’t on the ballot. The MAGA base didn’t totally agree. David, you reported out a story about how MAGA basically went feral, I think is the fair way to put it on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning looking at all of the results come in. What did you see?

所以，选举结束后，特朗普将责任归咎于候选人的素质以及他本人没有参加竞选的事实。但MAGA阵营并不完全认同。大卫，你报道了一篇关于MAGA在周二晚上和周三早上看到所有结果出炉时基本上变得“狂暴”的故事，我想用这个词来形容很恰当。你看到了什么？

David Gilbert: Yeah, it was interesting to look at how it played out because Trump also blamed Fox News, let’s not forget, because he said they had a lot to bear because they platformed a lot of Democrats because that’s what they do. But I think the f…

大卫·吉尔伯特：是的，观察事态的发展很有趣，因为别忘了，特朗普还指责了福克斯新闻（Fox News），他说他们难辞其咎，因为他们为许多民主党人提供了平台，因为这就是他们的做法。但我认为……