What’s Next for DEI? The Legal and Political Landscape After the Midterm Elections

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13 Nov

What’s Next for DEI? The Legal and Political Landscape After the Midterm Elections

What’s Next for DEI? The Legal and Political Landscape After the Midterm Elections

Friday, November 13, 2026 (12:00 AM to 11:59 PM)
1.5 PDCs
Provider: Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion
Course Name: What’s Next for DEI? The Legal and Political Landscape After the Midterm Elections

Speaker: Erin Jacobson and Effenus Henderson
Program Type: Videoconferences, webcasts, audiocasts, podcasts, eBooks, self-directed E-Learning
Registration URL: https://i4sdi.org/special-events-2026/

Email Details

sow might the Midterm Elections affect the current assault on DEI? Will the controlling party in Congress shed any new light on DEI efforts? What’s the current position of the Trump Administration on DEI? What changes might be most likely, and which ones less likely?

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Lots of questions are swirling around the shifting environment for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in this political landscape. . The midterm elections will reshape who holds oversight, funding, confirmation, and state-level power. They will not, on their own, rewrite employment law, undo existing executive orders, or change who runs the enforcement agencies. This session separates what has changed from what has not. The Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion (ISDI) continues its 2026 series of important Special Events with a post-election strategy session on the legal and political environment shaping Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion work nationwide. The dynamic duo from previous sessions will once again present this session: Effenus Henderson, Co-Director, Institute for Sustainable Diversity & Inclusion Erin Jacobson, Attorney and President, Workplace Law Group, PC. . The conversation in this session is not a partisan one. It is a governance conversation. The Current Reframe: DEI as Risk vs. Asset & Advantage As enforcement activity expands and public narratives attempt to reframe DEI as risk rather than performance infrastructure, organizational leaders must operate with legal precision, strategic clarity, and institutional discipline, whatever the election results were. This session will examine: What the election results do, and do not, change in the legal and enforcement environment 2026 enforcement trends: federal contractor requirements, False Claims Act settlements, and EEOC and DOJ activity, and what the courts have allowed to stand Scenarios for divided or unified government, and what each means for oversight, funding, and state-level action Distinguishing lawful inclusion strategy from practices that create exposure, including the risk of retreating too early Governance-level implications for boards, executives, and HR leaders in the first 90 days after the election How to embed inclusion into organizational systems in ways that are durable, compliant, and performance-enhancing across political cycles Our position is clear: sustainable inclusion does not depend on an election cycle. It is operating architecture. The question is not who won. The question is what leaders should build, preserve, and decide next, lawfully, strategically, and with long-term institutional resilience. This 90-minute session, with 60 minutes of analysis and 30 minutes of open questions, equips leaders to move from watching the results to acting on the evidence.