Sanders, AOC, Warren Lead Democrats' Anti-AI Push
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- Five progressive Democrats — Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, Khanna, Warren, and Platner — are shaping a confrontational Democratic AI message, distinguishing themselves by targeting data centers and AI-linked super PAC money rather than embracing the technology.
- Sen. Bernie Sanders has led the movement with proposals for a data center moratorium, AI safety collaboration with China, worker protections from displacement, and an Abolish Super PACs Act warning about AI super PAC influence.
- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez held up jars of brown water from Morgan County, Georgia — where a Meta data center was built — during a congressional hearing with EPA official Jessica Kramer, calling for investigations into data centers' water quality impact.
- Rep. Ro Khanna called data centers 'extractive' and released a 'Work for America' proposal to hire 1 million Americans for public works and tech training, though he stopped short of backing Sanders' data center moratorium.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed taxing AI companies and data centers this week and has launched investigations into data centers' impact on electricity bills.
- Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner shared a stage with Sanders over Memorial Day weekend, where Sanders declared AI's function is 'to replace human labor'; Platner's AI policy platform has not yet been released.
- Centrist counterpressure is emerging: California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently reached out to Warren, but his AI executive order flopped with labor — California Federation of Labor Unions president Lorena Gonzalez called Khanna's 'Work for America' proposal 'way more developed and worker- and job-centered' — while Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker is poised to sign a major AI safety bill.
Why it matters: The labor endorsement gap is telling: California's labor federation president called Khanna's 'Work for America' plan 'way more developed and worker- and job-centered' than Gov. Newsom's AI executive order, suggesting the 2028 Democratic primary's AI lane is tilting toward Sanders-aligned populists over Silicon Valley-friendly centrists — a realignment that gives organized labor effective veto power over the party's technology platform.
