Why corporate America needs one playbook for a divided Washington after November

Data center companies learned the hard way that winning Washington isn't the same as winning the country.

They had the permits, the agencies and a president who warned that towns rejecting them would end up "backwards and poor." Then the neighbors showed up.

Next month's midterms set the same trap.

Polls show Democrats could sweep Congress, and the temptation in every C-suite would be to mistake a Democratic Congress for a Democratic Washington.

Companies avoid that mistake when corporate communications and government affairs leaders work hand in hand.

Corporate communications staff know that November's vote won't tell you what stakeholders believe about each issue that comes up in the next two years.

Government affairs workers know that Congress' flip doesn't mean President Donald Trump is out of power.

DEMOCRATS THINK A BLUE WAVE IS BUILDING.

HERE ARE 3 FORCES THAT COULD STOP IT After all, voters sent Republicans packing in 2006, but President George W.

Bush still ordered the surge in Iraq two months later and lifted the executive ban on offshore drilling in 2008.

President Barack Obama pushed through an immigration order, the Iran nuclear deal and Title IX guidance on gender identity after Republicans took Congress in 2014.

And President Joe Biden 's Federal Trade Commission kept suing corporations into his final days in office.

In each case, congressional power belonged to the president's opponents while the regulatory regime stayed in his hands.

And Trump's record shows that he'll use that power.