Venture capitalists were unusually vocal during this year's election cycle, but unusually absent from actual ballots.

• Typically we get a decent handful of startup investors running for elective office. This time we had to squint to find them.
• Except for JD Vance, who eclipsed Mitt Romney as the industry's most successful crossover candidate.

The only active VC running for federal office was Greg Kidd, a former crypto exec and angel investor who now leads a Nevada-based firm called Hard Yaka.

• He ran for Nevada's 2nd congressional district as an independent against Republican incumbent Rep. Mark Amodei, but came up well short.

The only active VC running for a high-profile local office was Mark Farrell, co-founder and managing director of Thayer Ventures, who sought to unseat London Breed as San Francisco's mayor.

• He's currently in fourth place and was eliminated via the city's ranked-choice voting system, while Breed and Levi Strauss heir Daniel Lurie continue to battle it out.

Other races of note: Rep. Josh Harder (D-Calif.), a former investor with Bessemer Venture Partners, is locked in a tight re-election race in California's 9th district. Way too early to call.

• George Whitesides, a part-time partner with Convective Capital and the former CEO of Virgin Galactic, is around 5,000 votes behind in his efforts to replace GOP Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) in California's 27th Congressional District, but with just 67% reporting.
• Dave McCormick, who isn't a VC but did help run hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, is a hair ahead of Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.). No final call there yet.

Donald Trump will be the 47th U.S. president, defeating Kamala Harris by a healthy margin.

Why it's the BFD: This will color U.S. dealmaking for the next several years, mostly in ways we can't yet predict. Even if Democrats manage to take the House.

Zoom in: Trump is protectionist, opposing Nippon's pending purchase of U.S. Steel, but also came out against forced TikTok divestiture. He's for lower taxes, but higher tariffs. He seems to be in awe of U.S. conglomerates, but has antipathy toward Big Tech, his running mate is a Lina Khan fan, and his DOJ tried to block the AT&T-Time Warner megamerger.

• He's said precious little on AI, which is likely to be the driving technological and economic force of his presidency. Same goes for the GLP-1 revolution in health care, which could be in the crosshairs of an RFK-led bureaucracy.
• Trump may seek to rescind parts of the IRA and CHIPS Act, or use them as pay-for bargaining chips with Congress. And during the campaign argued for a role in monetary policy, without detailing what the role could be.

The bottom line: Many dealmakers viewed the Biden administration as punitive, particularly when it came to antitrust and crypto.

• Now they've got a fresh term sheet — littered with TBDs.

• Recognise Bank, a British digital bank for SMEs, raised £25m from Parasol V27. axios.link/4ectm7u

• Vlayer, an ethereum smart contract startup, raised $10m in pre-seed funding from a16z, Credo Ventures, and BlockTower Capital. axios.link/4fxLBFv

• XAvveo, a German developer of autonomous vehicle sensor tech, raised $8.6m in seed funding co-led by Vsqared Ventures and imec.xpand. axios.link/3Aq41sV

🚑 Research Grid, a London-based provider of workflow automation software for clinical trials, raised $6.5m in seed funding. Fuel Ventures led, and was joined by Ada Ventures and Morgan Stanley Inclusive Ventures Lab. axios.link/48HcVz0

• JustFund, an Australian divorce lending fintech, raised A$5.7m. Xilium Capital led, and was joined by Startmate, Legal Tech Fund, and Tripple. axios.link/4fyJ7GG

• MoradaUno, a Mexican real estate mental platform, raised $5.6m in Series A funding. Flourish Ventures and Cometa co-led, and were joined by Clocktower Ventures, Picus Capital, and YC. moradauno.com.mx

• AllFocal Optics, a U.K. developer of mixed-reality lenses, raised £2.8m led by SpeedInvest. axios.link/3NXqyk4

🌎 SeaO2, a Dutch ocean carbon removal startup, raised €2m from Doen Participaties, New-TTT, Future Tech Ventures, and CarbonFix. axios.link/3CeYw0I

• 26North Partners completed its buyout of Fenton, Mo., electrical services provider ArchKey Solutions from One Rock Capital Partners. axios.link/3AiBaa1

• Access Group, backed by TA Associates, acquired Paytronix, a Newton, Mass.-based restaurant customer engagement and payments software provider, from Great Hill Partners. paytronix.com

• Apollo, Bain Capital, and Brookfield are circling Avery Lodge, a worker housing firm owned by Blackstone that could fetch around S$750m, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3NThKvv

🚑 Elevate Patient Financial Solutions, a Spring, Texas-based revenue cycle management company backed by Frazier Healthcare Partners and Edgewater Funds, acquired NYX Health Eligibility Services, an Alpharetta, Ga., provider of RCM focused on eligibility verification and enrollment services. elevatepfs.com

• MiddleGround Capital completed its €312m take-private buyout of Stemmer Imaging, a German provider of image processing tech. stemmer-imaging.com

• Minds + Assembly, a portfolio company of from Amulet Capital Partners, acquired medical communication agency Boldscience. mna.co

🚑 Miura Partners acquired HealthTech BioActives, a Spanish maker of flavonoids and B12, from The Riverside Co. htba.com

• Sagewind Capital acquired a majority stake in Sabel Systems, a provider of digital transformation solutions to the U.S. Defense Department and other government agencies. sabelsystems.com

• Brookfield is seeking to sell Aveo, an Australian retirement home operator that could fetch more than A$3b, per The Australian. aveo.com.au

⚽ Fosun Sports Group bought a minority stake in Premier League team Wolverhampton Wanderers from Peak6 Investments, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4fuXWdm

🚑 KKR is weighing a $750m block sale of its control stake in India's JB Chemicals & Pharma, per Reuters. axios.link/3UFTXCX

⚡ BP (LSE: BP) said it's seeking to sell its Dutch gas stations and EV charging hubs. axios.link/4fBmHVE

🚑 Patchwork Health, a British hospital staff scheduling startup that's raised over $40m in VC funding, acquired L2P Enterprises, a U.K. provider of medical appraisal and job planning software. axios.link/3YJnihc

• State Street (NYSE: STT) is seeking to buy into a private credit or infrastructure firm, per an interview with the FT. axios.link/3AGiJMl

Correction: Shamrock Capital raised $1.25b for its sixth flagship fund. Apologies for yesterday's typo.

• Category Ventures, a new VC firm led by Villi Iltchev (ex-Two Sigma Ventures, Box, August Capital), is raising $156m for its debut fund, per an SEC filing.

⚡ Pelican En$ergy Partners of Houston raised $450m for a fund that will invest in nuclear energy services and equipment providers. axios.link/3Cc9gNb

🌎 WovenEarth is raising up to $300m for its second climate-focused VC fund-of-funds, per an SEC filing.

• David Blitzer is stepping down as head of Blackstone's $37b tactical opportunities business. He'll become group chairman, and be succeeded by group COO Chris James. axios.link/4fdMfs3

• Joshua Liebow joined MPE Partners as a principal. He previously was with Manulife Investment Management. axios.link/4ek0c6g

Private equity donated slightly more to Democrats than to Republicans during the 2024 election cycle, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets.

• The three top recipients were Kamala Harris, Nikki Haley, and Donald Trump ($794k).
• Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) was the top House recipient, while the top Senate candidate was Dave McCormick (R-Pa.)
• Venture capitalists skewed even deeper blue, with over 70% of their donations going to Democrats. Harris again led, followed by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).