Their plans are heavier on rhetoric than specifics so far. But it’s a shift for many in the party who have been slow to address the fast-changing technology.
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Democrats with an eye on the presidency in 2028 are racing to address voters’ fears about artificial intelligence — planning speeches, warning about the technology on social media and, in a few cases, introducing legislation.
The flurry of activity, which so far has been heavier on rhetoric than specific policies, is a turnaround for many Democrats who have been slow to address the fast-changing technology that has a powerful industry behind it that has punished its perceived enemies in elections.
Last week, former president Barack Obama urged Democrats who want to run for president to be clear in defining the risks of AI, according to a transcript of a private fundraiser where he made the remarks. His remarks followed an AI researcher’s viral resignation post raising the prospect that the technology could soon lead to the demise of humanity. Top executives of several AI companies then proposed the federal government should help them “pace” the rate of development in their field.
The warnings, amplified by Democrats’ most influential figure, appeared to rouse potential presidential candidates. Mentions of AI or OpenAI or Anthropic were six times as common last week compared with the same time period a month earlier in social media posts, podcasts and other public statements from high-profile, likely 2028 candidates of both parties, according to a Washington Post analysis.
President Donald Trump reiterated his support for the industry, saying it should not slow down development and that the only guardrail the industry needs is a “smart” president.
Mentions of AI jumped the day after former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon posted his viral resignation statement online, where he said he feared the technology could destroy humanity if it continues to develop unchecked. The leaders of top AI companies then made an extraordinary request for the federal government to help them slow AI development, offering to allow third-party monitors into their companies to ensure safety.
“AI is advancing faster than our ability to understand its risks. When our national security is on the line, waiting to act isn’t an option,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) wrote on Facebook.
Sen. Mark Kelly, the other Democratic senator from Arizona who has introduced bills aimed at educating the public about AI, wrote on X, that not taking action would be “just plain dumb.”
Democratic governors who are believed to be positioning themselves for a run touted new laws their legislatures had passed. J.B. Pritzker, the governor or Illinois, said Congress should “act NOW” to follow his state’s “nation-leading AI law.” California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted about California’s new law to levy safety requirements on companion chatbots that talk to children. “Innovation comes with responsibility, and protecting our children comes first,” he wrote.
Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania is planning an address on AI on Thursday, following his executive order in August to remove data centers from a fast track permitting process in the state.
“It’s long past time for our federal government to step up, take this seriously, and put up some guardrails — both here at home and on the global stage,” Shapiro wrote on social media.
Others incorporated their new AI message into campaign trail stump speeches.
“A capable president would move swiftly to secure and reassure the American people. Rush inspectors into frontier labs, fortify the nation against bioterrorism, demand legislation from Congress and lead the world toward an AI treaty,” Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat running for reelection in Georgia, said at a rally in Athens on Sunday.
Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary who is courting presidential interest, also called for more scrutiny. “Technology can do a lot of good, but only if we have leaders ready to make sure that it does not lead to more concentration of wealth and power in fewer and fewer hands,” he said at a Sunday rally in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he campaigned with Deb Haaland, another former cabinet secretary who is running for governor, and Rep. Gabe Vasquez.
Specifics, however, have been more scarce than grave calls to action so far, as Democrats scramble to come up with a regulatory scheme for a new technology that is changing rapidly. And stark divisions on how to approach regulating the powerful industry are already emerging.
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Progressives slammed a social media post by Kamala Harris, the former vice president who is also considering another run for the White House. Harris, in her post, praised an effort by a former tech lobbyist to convene a group of venture capital and AI executives to design a regulation plan for the industry.
“A total misread,” wrote Morris Katz, a Democratic strategist and adviser to New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
“This is not a moment for Kumbaya with big tech billionaires,” said Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which promotes populist candidates on the left. He said a “fault line” within 2028 contenders will be who is “truly willing to hold billionaire big tech executive accountable” versus those who want to let the industry “regulate themselves.”
Harris, in a separate post, also advocated for creating a federal agency to regulate AI and urged the president to seek a treaty with China and other nations to halt dangerous uses of AI.
Progressive leader Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), who at 85 is unlikely to run for president again, has put forward the most sweeping and aggressive agenda so far. One bill would nationalize a chunk of the AI industry, and another would ban the development of artificial superintelligence and impose lengthy prison sentences for those who violate that ban. Another bill would start a moratorium on data center development.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), who has drawn 2028 interest, co-sponsored the data center moratorium, but has not yet signed on to his other efforts. Most other potential presidential candidates have not embraced his plans.
“I don’t think there are too many Democrats who are talking about this in a compelling way,” said Tré Easton, vice president of policy at the Searchlight Institute, a center-left think tank. “Bernie is the only one who is articulating a vision that’s comprehensive.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), another potential 2028 candidate who has introduced legislation to prevent the federal government from retaliating against states that regulate AI, said the party needs to work harder to win voters’ trust on the issue.
“For a lot of voters right now they’re not clear which party is taking the threat more seriously,” Murphy said, pointing to some GOP candidates trying to attack Democratic opponents in the midterm elections on the data center issue. “Given the fact that Donald Trump and the entire Republican party are protecting AI companies, we shouldn’t let them outflank us.”
The House, which is under GOP control, left Washington this week until the midterm elections without meaningfully addressing the issue.
AI was the rare issue voters gave Republicans a slight edge over Democrats in a recent New York Times-Siena poll, with 40 percent saying they think Democrats would do a better job handling it and 42 percent preferring Republicans. Eighteen percent said they didn’t know or declined to answer. Still, less than 1 percent of voters called AI or data centers the most important issue in deciding their vote this fall.
Top Democratic strategists believe that number will increase, however, as the technology increasingly replaces jobs and disrupts the economy. A group of them met last week to discuss the party’s plan for AI policy and how to own the issue going into 2028.
One strategist, Jesse Ferguson, presented polling that showed 71 percent of independents in battleground districts say they trust neither political party to handle AI, and that 86 percent want Congress to act on the issue. Ferguson pushed for Democrats to pursue regulations that ensure humans remain in control of decisions about their own lives, he said, whether that’s a medical procedure or the choice to allow a chatbot to talk to your kids, instead of speaking vaguely about an existential threat that AI superintelligence could pose to humanity.
“Certainly if I were running for president next year, this would be one of my central agendas, and I would have a very clear plan,” Obama said in last week’s fundraiser. “And I would talk about this.”
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Erin Cox and Clara Ence Morse contributed to this report.
