Artificial intelligence is increasingly emerging as a key wedge issue — not between the major political parties, but within them.
On the right, MAGA populists and influencers are warning about the potential hazards of unrestricted AI development as President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and their administration have pushed for minimal regulations in the name of beating China to potential society-altering advancements.
On the left, progressives are fighting against potential AI-fueled job losses and a further consolidation of financial power by Big Tech as center-left Democrats weigh the unknown downsides of technological advancement with major investments in their states and a need to stay competitive in a rapidly changing global economy.
Potential 2028 presidential contenders — from Vance and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley on the right, to California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the left — are all carving out unique lanes on the issue, creating some unusual bedfellows.
Ocasio-Cortez is among the potential 2028 candidates who have highlighted growing concerns in recent weeks. Last month, she raised the potential for a market downturn fueled by what some are calling an AI bubble, warning at a congressional hearing of “2008-style threats to economic stability.”
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said in September that he fears “our democracy and many others could frankly collapse under the weight of both the economic and the spiritual impacts of advanced AI.” And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis noted at the Florida Rural Economic Development Summit last month that AI could undercut white-collar jobs.
“I don’t think that’s a good thing,” he said, adding, “It’s one of the reasons why I don’t think we should be subsidizing it. Why would we subsidize something that could potentially cause problems for folks?”
Meanwhile, some of the Democratic governors who are on the shortlist of 2028 contenders have taken a different approach. Newsom, who has embraced the use of AI-generated imagery in his monthslong effort to troll Trump and governs the state that’s home to Silicon Valley, has signed several AI regulations into law while vetoing others. He’s called for balancing the need for regulation with “ensuring that the growing AI industry continues to thrive.”
Others, such as Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who align with the party’s center-left wing, have hailed AI and data center investments in their states.
“We are already all in on AI,” Shapiro said in June, announcing Amazon’s $20 billion AI investment in his state, adding that Pennsylvania demonstrates “what a united front looks like to win the battle of AI supremacy.”
Josh Orton, president of the progressive advocacy group Demand Justice, who was an aide to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and then-Vice President Kamala Harris, said his sense is that “most working people” will view AI as a threat.
“Any candidate who doesn’t understand that will seem wildly out of touch,” Orton said. “Without question, you are going to see candidates propose policies from the perspective of people being more afraid of its repercussions than excited about its potential.”
“There will be presidential candidates hungry for tech money who will make policy proposals about how AI is wonderful and amazing — to woo donors,” he continued.
Steve Bannon, a former Trump White House adviser and prominent MAGA media personality, has ramped up his focus on the issue in recent weeks, describing the fight for the right’s future as between “broligarchs” in the tech industry and the populist movement he champions.
“They have to be confronted,” Bannon said in an interview of AI companies. “They’re totally out of control.”
He called for more guardrails to be put in place for AI in the U.S., saying “it takes more regulation to open a nail salon on Capitol Hill” than exists to constrain AI.
“You have no idea where these things are going to end up,” Bannon added. “No idea. Maybe the most dangerous thing we’re dealing with right now.”
Multiple AI-related fights are heating up at the moment. State and federal lawmakers are trying to quickly ensure child safeguards around AI as devastating stories emerge linking chatbots to instances of suicide and self-harm. Grassroots opposition to the rapid proliferation of AI data centers — a core element of the Trump economic agenda — is intensifying as state lawmakers deal with constituents who are worried about electricity bill hikes that are in part tied to the energy-hungry complexes.
And perhaps the biggest fight of all is one the president and AI proponents have further fueled in recent days, with the White House having drafted an executive order that, if signed, would challenge states’ rights to regulate AI.
Faiz Shakir, a Democratic strategist and the top aide to Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, pointed to rising grassroots anger over data centers as an entry point for voter distaste for AI development.
“The grassroots movement is going on organically, and it is not being matched by political leadership,” he said.
Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio — who has worked on several pieces of AI-related legislation, including the bipartisan Recommending Artificial Intelligence Standards in Education, or RAISE Act, which he introduced with Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del. — said he sees opportunity in AI. Husted, who was appointed to fill Vance’s Senate seat and faces a tough special election next year, said he recognizes potential pitfalls, from children being exposed to harmful content from AI chatbots to consumers falling victim to deceptive products and practices.
“I’m trying to lean in on the upside but also put protections in place so that we’re not being abused,” Husted said, also acknowledging the “anxieties” that workers have about AI rendering their jobs obsolete, describing it as a tension point. “We want progress, but we don’t want anything to change. That’s at the center of our human spirit. We like things the way they are, but we also want to win.”
Super PACs and other interest groups focused on promoting AI have started to emerge, backed by millions of dollars from deep-pocketed donors who are likely to ramp up spending as elections near. That includes Leading the Future, a new super PAC backed by $100 million from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, a co-founder of OpenAI and a co-founder of Palantir, and two new super PACs led by former Reps. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, and Brad Carson, D-Okla., which will support candidates “committed to defending the public interest against those who aim to buy their way out of sensible AI regulation,” per a release.
So far, the super PAC making the most noise is Leading the Future, which now seeks to boost candidates who support a national AI framework — federal regulations that would pre-empt any new state laws. The group recently announced the first candidate it will fight against: Alex Bores, a candidate in a deeply contested Democratic primary in New York’s 12th Congressional District who has championed AI safety legislation.
“This is going to be a major issue this year and going into next year,” Josh Vlasto, a top official at the super PAC and former aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “It’s front of mind for voters and for businesses and for parents and families.”
A Democratic operative close to multiple potential 2028 presidential candidates, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said party leaders are having active discussions about where to come down on the matter. One approach is to “just go all in against it and say these tech oligarchs are bad, they don’t care about you, this is a disaster, they’re coming for your communities,” ahead of the upcoming midterm and presidential elections.
“Or do you try to win over tech and say, ‘Stay on the sideline, just shut up, we need to put a couple rules in place,’” this person continued. “Just shut the f--- up and work with us here.”
Some of Trump’s early moves in office, including his administration’s AI Action Plan, were unveiled with the goal of rapidly accelerating AI, an industry that has accounted for most of the gross domestic product growth in the U.S. during his first year back in office.
In recent days, Trump has ramped up his own advocacy. In addition to the executive order that has been drafted to target state regulations, Trump signed a separate order launching “Genesis Mission,” which is aimed at supercharging American AI research, development and scientific applications.
“Investment in AI is helping to make the U.S. Economy the ‘HOTTEST’ in the World, but overregulation by the States is threatening to undermine this Major Growth ‘Engine,’’ Trump posted on his Truth Social platform last month, adding, “We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes. If we don’t, then China will easily catch us in the AI race.”
Republican Rep. Gabe Evans, a former U.S. Army officer who represents a key swing district in Colorado, said in an interview that voters need to understand how important it is for the U.S. to reach these AI milestones before China.
“What I tell people is, whether you love it or hate it, AI is here,” Evans said, adding, “If you’re nervous about AI, you need to be exponentially more nervous about communist AI controlled by the Chinese.”
As with many policy debates, Trump is dictating the terms — and his effort to ensure the tech giants are unencumbered by red tape has come as those same companies have sought to curry favor with his administration while announcing historic AI investments in the U.S.
For Vance, the early front-runner for the 2028 GOP presidential nomination, the administration’s advocacy is setting the stage for AI policy to be a major inflection point for his potential campaign. He already represents something of a bridge between two worlds: the lower-income, working-class world of his childhood in Middletown, Ohio, and the high-tech, big-money world of Silicon Valley, where he worked as a venture capitalist.
Those potentially dueling interests were on display in Vance’s February speech at the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris. There, the vice president heralded AI largely as an opportunity to be embraced — not feared or overregulated.
More recently, Vance tackled the issue during a Fox News interview in which he linked his pro-AI stance to his anti-immigration views. Using home construction as an example, Vance described robots as complementary to “blue-collar” workers and immigrant laborers as an outright threat to replace them on job sites.
“[I]f you use technology and you empower the blue-collar workers rather than replace them with foreign labor, I think they’re going to do way better,” Vance said.
A longtime Trump-aligned operative, speaking on the condition of anonymity, noted long-standing bipartisan buy-in on the need to win the AI race over China. This person sees a divide between the Trump administration’s advocacy for AI advancement and a “populist, socialist” wing of the Democratic Party “that wants to use fears of AI job loss as a means to get votes.” This person recalled similar job loss fears around the birth of the internet that ultimately did not materialize — an argument that could hold weight for Vance, who this person described as holding “pro-AI views,” in a future campaign.
“That could be a fault line between the two parties in 2028,” this person said.
But even among MAGA allies, there is no consensus on how to move forward on AI. Ryan Girdusky, a conservative consultant who helped run a super PAC that backed Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign in Ohio, described AI as his “big fear” for Republicans who could suffer at the ballot box if they are unable to stave off AI-related job losses.
“I think that they should try to do whatever they can to make the change to AI a little less dramatic,” Girdusky said. “That’s what’s going to feed the AOC presidential run of 2028. She’ll be talking about AI, and Republicans will still be like, ‘Well, you never know. We can still grow our way out of the deficit.’”
