Welcome to today's edition of the Daily 5.
As Donald Trump's historic political comeback victory in the 2024 presidential race begins to sink in today, Republicans are also jubilant over their success taking back the U.S. Senate majority with key victories in Ohio and West Virginia.
It took a former car dealer to get the job done in Ohio. Bernie Moreno's win over longtime Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown scored points on multiple levels for conservatives and pro-business advocates.
Besides ensuring a GOP majority in the Senate, Moreno will replace a stalwart pro-union lawmaker who supported the UAW for many years and walked the picket line with striking Stellantis workers last year. Brown is also chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, and his departure will be celebrated by those who support financial deregulation.
Moreno also won a victory for car dealers' reputations. Brown's attack ads took direct aim at his past history as the owner of auto dealerships, telling voters they couldn't trust him because he was a car dealer. His fellow dealers angrily came to his defense.
Reagan McCarthy, spokeswoman for Moreno, told Automotive News via email that the camp appreciated support from the auto industry. "Sherrod Brown made a pivotal mistake by attacking Bernie for simply being a car dealer, and the industry did not take kindly to Brown's disgusting attack," McCarthy wrote in our story by Julie Walker today.
Another emerging story today following Trump's win is what role Tesla CEO Elon Musk will take in the new administration after investing an estimated $130 million supporting the Republican's campaign. There's no telling how many potential conflicts of interest Musk could face depending on his role, but clearly his power and influence will grow to new levels. As for the return on his investment, Tesla shares soared 13 percent by midday today, giving Musk billions of dollars in market gains in a few hours.
Trump's victory also resulted in a humiliating defeat for UAW leadership, which engaged in a massive get-out-the-vote effort supporting Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign. Trump's power to appoint new members to the National Labor Relations Board could have a broad impact on UAW strikes and organizing campaigns. For nearly a year, union President Shawn Fain has been trying to organize nonunion automakers in the U.S., but so far his only victory was at Volkswagen's assembly operations in Chattanooga.
Plenty of nonelection news broke today in the automotive world. As reported by Urvaksh Karkaria, Volvo Cars is moving up U.S. deliveries of its most affordable model as the Swedish automaker's electric vehicle sales crater in the world's second-largest auto market. Those EX30 deliveries will begin in December to reservation holders.
In the mobility world, ride-hailing service Lyft today unveiled three partnerships related to autonomous driving, as Pete Bigelow reported. One of the partnerships will rely on robotaxis equipped with technology provided by global supplier Mobileye running on the Lyft network. It also announced partnerships with self-driving technology company May Mobility and Israeli startup Nexar.
Looking ahead to Thursday, we'll continue to look at the automotive implications of another Trump presidency. We will also take a close look at why dealers are seeing lower gross profits on new vehicles.
That's it for today. Have a great rest of your day.
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
