2028 Election https://www.washingtonsun.com/2028-election 2028 Election en-US Mon, 14 Sep 2026 09:04:00 GMT Trump Officials Are Selling an Economy Americans Aren’t Buying. Sound Familiar? https://www.washingtonsun.com/economy/trump-economy-public-opinion-voters Jade Lozada “There is a pretty strong parallel between the way the Biden administration handled the question of inflation,” one expert said. Mon, 14 Sep 2026 09:04:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/economy/trump-economy-public-opinion-voters Trump Economy AP-25093385134282
President Donald Trump has acknowledged that his policies have created price pressures but has argued that the temporary economic pain. (Arne Dedert/picture-alliance/dpa/AP)
The midterm elections are getting closer, and the Trump administration’s explanations for rising inflation are getting further from what many voters and independent economists are describing.

Trump’s economic policy advisers have zeroed in on indicators like wages, GDP and stock market growth to sell Americans on a humming economy. Americans are reporting a different experience. In a July Pew Research Center poll, 60% of U.S. adults said that President Donald Trump’s second-term policies have made the economy worse.

The dissonance has reminded former Biden officials of a dynamic they caution can be a losing battle: trying to explain the economy to American voters.

“During the Biden administration, there was a genuine disconnect between improving macroeconomic indicators and how households experience the cumulative increase in their day-to-day prices,” said Tonantzin Carmona, who served as Biden’s special assistant for economic policy on the National Economic Council.

The economic conditions are different now than when Biden was president. Trump is presiding over a ballooning stock market, while Biden was tasked with jump-starting a sputtering pandemic economy with record-high unemployment. The former president’s policies stoked inflation to highs that Trump hasn’t been able to tamp back down, despite the economic growth driven by the AI industry.

That’s led economists to question the White House’s continued focus on positive indicators that don’t reflect workers’ struggles with high inflation.

After sweeping back into power by castigating President Joe Biden for being out of touch with the average American’s pocketbook, Trump and Republicans are experiencing the other side of their own messaging playbook.

“There is a pretty strong parallel between the way the Biden administration handled the question of inflation,” said William Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “In neither case were the respective administrations in touch with what people were thinking, feeling, experiencing on the ground in their daily lives.”

Trump’s economic agenda has made for a challenging political environment ahead of the midterms.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a recent Treasury analysis found that if companies passed the total costs of U.S.-Canada tariffs on to consumers, there would be a near-zero effect on inflation. The countries are locked in a trade war, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rolling out tariffs on $20 billion worth of U.S. goods and Trump outright banning many Canadian imports.

“So the pain to the U.S. — there is none,” Bessent said Tuesday at a Breitbart News event.

The Treasury Department did not respond to multiple requests for the report Bessent cited.

Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis found that tariffs contributed 0.2 to 0.4 percentage points to core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, as of July. Year-over-year core inflation punched in at 3.3% that month.

Economists at the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank found that tariffs in fact account for a lesser share of inflation in recent months, but that’s likely because soaring energy prices are driving inflation numbers up.

Bessent’s remarks are the latest example of the Trump administration characterizing the economy differently than how people are feeling it. On Tuesday, Bessent touted rising wages, particularly for workers without college degrees and those in the bottom quartile of income earners.

High school-educated workers may be experiencing good times, but on the whole, the nation’s rising wages aren’t keeping up with inflation, meaning workers have less purchasing power than they once did.

“Inflation is a little bit higher than we would like, but — this is important — coming down,” Christopher Phelan, Trump’s chief economic adviser, said Tuesday at the Breitbart event. Inflation increased by 0.4% in August, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday.

Sameera Fazili, the former deputy director of Biden’s National Economic Council, said Bessent’s comments reflect the challenge administration officials face in spinning good news from poor economic conditions.

“When you’re a communicator communicating the policy, you always want to have hard numbers to back the talking point that the political offices are asking you to deliver,” Fazili said. “What voters are upset about is the price level that they are experiencing right now, and instead he is trying to find some talking point on inflation and future price increases.”

Former Biden administration officials say the Trump administration is repeating their mistakes, with a key difference: They argue Trump’s inflation woes are self-inflicted, related to his tariff policies and the Iran war, compared to Biden’s pandemic-era problems.

“The distinction today, though, is that some of the Trump administration policies can themselves add to the affordability pressures people are describing,” Carmona, who’s currently the director of economic policy at the left-leaning Century Foundation, added.

The Iran war has added more than $100 billion in extra costs to Americans’ energy bills as of this week, according to an estimate by Brown University’s Climate Solutions Lab. Soaring energy costs trickle down to production and transit expenses for food, apparel and other necessities, as tariffs also raise prices for certain common goods.

Several Republicans in tight races have criticized Trump’s trade agenda, citing economic concerns. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who’s in one of the most competitive races of the midterm cycle, has come out against the president’s trade war with Canada. So has John Sununu, the Republican Senate contender in New Hampshire, as The Washington Sun previously reported.

Democratic Senate candidates in Michigan, Ohio and Alaska, looking to retake the Senate majority, have hammered their Republican opponents on trade.

“Consumer confidence is lower than it has ever been. That means it's lower than when we had 9% inflation in 2022,” said Neera Tanden, who served as Biden’s domestic policy adviser. “I think that is a product of the fact that costs and wages are out of whack for basically the bottom 60 to 70% of workers.”

“The greatest irony to me is there is no president that I'm aware of who has adopted a series of policies that raise costs and create additional burdens for working-class people,” added Tanden, who is currently the president and CEO of the left-leaning Center for American Progress.

The president himself has acknowledged that his policies have created price pressures but has argued that the temporary economic pain is worth it to achieve bigger goals, such as eliminating a nuclear threat from Iran or reshoring American manufacturing.

"Guys come up, 'You know, I wish you didn't do the war in Iran. Gasoline's up,'" Trump said in his speech at the Republican midterm convention on Wednesday. "And I say ... let me ask you one question: Can Iran have a nuclear weapon? 'Absolutely not.' Well then, I'm right, then I win."

White House spokesperson Kush Desai defended the impact of Trump’s policies on the economy in a statement to The Washington Sun.

“Last year, President Trump increased America’s average tariff rate by nearly sevenfold yet inflation cooled,” Desai said. “While President Trump had always been clear about temporary disruptions as a result of Operation Epic Fury, the August CPI report showing dramatic month-over-month declines in beef, prescription drug, and auto insurance costs is proof that the Administration’s policies continue to deliver long-term economic relief for the American people.”

“That's the argument you make when you've run out of economic arguments,” said Lindsay Owens, the president and CEO of the left-leaning Groundwork Collaborative. “You saber-rattle about foreign adversaries, and you wax poetic about a bygone period of American manufacturing.”]]> Democrats’ Hollywood Allies Think the Party Has Lost the Plot https://www.washingtonsun.com/2026-election/hollywood-democrats-messaging-midterms Oriana González, Kadia Goba A number of entertainment industry figures who worked on Democrats’ successful 2018 cycle are sitting this one out. Thu, 10 Sep 2026 09:45:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/2026-election/hollywood-democrats-messaging-midterms Illustration depicts Hakeem Jeffries, a donkey, Hollywood scenes
(Illustration by Jacob Hege for The Washington Sun)
Some of the Hollywood figures who helped Democrats retake the House in 2018 are reluctant to help them do it again.

Screenwriters, directors and other entertainment industry figures who once coached Democratic candidates, wrote their speeches and helped run rapid response operations are, at best, unmotivated to help this cycle and, at worst, entirely disillusioned with the party. Still, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ camp has been turning to industry types as a messaging resource, but some executives are upset that leaders can’t control the caucus’ growing progressive wing.

“The Democratic Party right now is torn in a couple directions, and some of those directions I'm no longer willing to work for or countenance, and so I'm a lot more sparing about it,” Gregg Hurwitz, a novelist and screenwriter known for his thriller series “Orphan X,” told The Washington Sun.

Hurwitz is part of a band of entertainment industry screenwriters, directors and producers who helped Democrats pick up 40 seats to gain control of the House in 2018. He said he worked pro bono writing and producing ads and coming up with a framework for moderate messaging that, he argued, “moves people away from the far left and right extremism.”

Hurwitz worked with Democratic campaigns between 2015 and 2022 but said he decided to leave the party after helping former Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minnesota) challenge President Joe Biden in the 2024 primary. He cited the fact that Phillips faced attacks for raising concerns about Biden’s age and said vendors associated with Phillips were met with threats of being blacklisted for life — behavior he compared to the Chinese Communist Party.

He officially signed paperwork to change his party affiliation from Democrat to independent last fall.

For Hurwitz, the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America and “having candidates winning primaries now who have stated overtly that America is worse than Hamas and that white women are ‘ugly colonialist women,’” is not behavior he could condone, he said. “To me, it’s a measure of extremism that the left has permitted without drawing a line that is incredibly threatening.”

Now, the self-described liberal said he’s instead limiting his messaging strategies to more moderate Democrats and even some Republicans — including those within the Trump administration. Hurwitz declined to provide names.

“Now and then I will get a call from people on either side. It could be someone in the current administration, and if I'm convinced that they’re doing something that will benefit the American people, especially anyone who’s working class, I’m open to helping.” Hurwitz said.

Similarly, Marshall Herskovitz, a screenwriter and director known for creating the television shows “Thirtysomething” and “My So-Called Life,” said that he’s done dealing with Democrats. After President Donald Trump was reelected in 2024, Democrats, he told The Sun, “seemed just absolutely incapable of dealing with the size of the disaster.”
20260905_Herskovitz_018 copy 2.jpg (3937x2624, AR: 1.50)“I no longer try to work within the apparatus of the party, which is what I did in 2018, 2020, ’22, making commercials and doing position papers that they could use or not use, that sort of thing,” Herskovitz said. He criticized the current party structure as “ossified” and told The Sun the party “basically exists to keep the same people employed.”

Instead, Herskovitz is focused on helping Democrats who he connects with organically and not through official party channels. He has met with Democratic donors and with podcast creators about developing a project where he could communicate his vision for the party.

“Since Trump was elected again, and when I saw what Democrats were doing and not doing, I just came to realize that if there were going to be any answers, it was going to come from outside the party,” Herskovitz said.

He said about the fissure between Hollywood and current Democratic leaders: “It’s sad. It shouldn’t have to be this way.”

Another filmmaker who requested anonymity since they still work with some Democratic candidates said much of the frustration comes from the language used, rather than the policies. 

“Only Democrats have a hard time with it, OK? And that’s because we tend to speak in these cotton candy terms that sound like they were dreamed up in the Harvard faculty lounge,” the filmmaker said. “No one in the world says ‘bodily autonomy,’ they just don’t. Nobody says ‘unhoused’ when they mean ‘homeless.’ Nobody says ‘justice impacted individual’ when they mean ‘criminal.’ And no farmer in history ever woke up, looked at his wife and said, ‘I’m having an affordability issue.’”

Not all screenwriters and producers that worked with Democrats in the past are mad at the party — but they also aren’t rushing to help. 

Shawn Ryan, a screenwriter and producer known for his shows “The Night Agent” and “S.W.A.T.”, worked with Hurwitz and Herskovitz in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic making ads for political groups. He stopped working directly with Democrats because he “was just super busy with work,” Ryan told The Sun. His involvement in politics now, he said, revolves around donating to candidates he likes.

“I’m not looking to sort of bash Democrats at the moment. Republicans have always had more discipline in their messaging than Democrats. Democrats are just a messier sort of group, but they’re also, I think, a little bit more dedicated to good governing,” Ryan said.

But, Ryan added, he understood the aggravations of Hurwitz, Herkovitz and the other filmmaker. 

“They have the ear of a lot of people in the Democratic Party, so I think that’s where their frustration comes from,” Ryan said. “We’re used to, as writers, really thinking long and hard about the exact perfect word, and when we hear people saying imperfect words when the stakes are so high, of course it’s of frustration.”

Jeffries’ Ties to Hollywood Can Be Traced Back to 2018 

Despite these screenwriters’ criticism, Democrats are running back to the entertainment industry for advice now that they see the majority within reach.

Jeffries’ team has hosted at least two meetings with screenwriters to discuss messaging ahead of the midterms, The Sun has learned.

His office invited a select group of chiefs of staff to meet with “Hollywood TV producers and screenwriters who are offering support to House Democrats” in the Capitol in April 2025, according to an invite sent to congressional offices viewed by The Sun. And in July, House Democratic staffers again met with screenwriters in New York to “refine and expand” their messaging, according to a Democratic strategist familiar with the matter.

A spokesperson for Jeffries did not comment.

In addition to staff-led meetings, Jeffries has been a guest on non-political podcasts, like “Men in Blazers” and “The Dan Le Batard Show.” He's also talked about Jay-Z on The Ringer's “The Press Box.”

During the 2018 election cycle, Jeffries was co-chair of House Democratic leadership’s messaging arm, and he developed connections with Hollywood executives to craft the caucus’s communications.

“Our mission was to create the right messaging that would lead to us winning back the majority. And I have been communicating with screenwriters regularly since then,” former Illinois Rep. Cheri Bustos, who served as House Democratic Policy and Communications Committee co-chair with Jeffries at the time, told The Sun.

“They know how to tell stories compellingly, emotionally and movingly. They use the right words, the right tone and the right feel,” Bustos continued. “I can’t think of any better writers and storytellers than the screenwriters, directors and authors who I have worked with through Democratic politics.”
20260905_Herskovitz_046 copy.jpg (5411x3335, AR: 1.62)Democratic leaders also connected candidates to producers in 2018. Former Rep. Harley Rouda of California, who defeated a Republican incumbent at the time, told The Sun that candidates in the House Democrats’ flagship ‘Red to Blue’ program “had access to people in Hollywood.” Screenwriters did not just consult candidates, they were directly involved with their communication operations.

“The concept was pretty simple: They are excellent storytellers, that’s what they do for a living, and the best way to connect with voters was to be able to tell a compelling story with compelling messaging that hopefully allows you the opportunity to win the race,” Rouda said.

He added, “Prior to 2018, Hollywood and the film industry predominantly were supporters of Democratic causes and candidates with their checkbooks.” Rouda said Trump’s 2016 election prompted filmmakers to actually get involved.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which handles the ‘Red to Blue’ program, downplayed any coordination, saying in a statement, it “does not connect screenwriters to our campaigns.”

“Our mission has been recruiting candidates with working backgrounds who listen to the voters directly. What they are hearing is that the American people are pissed at House Republicans and their broken promises — it’s easy to see why folks from all walks of life are raising their hand and asking how they can help Democrats take back the House,” said DCCC spokesperson Viet Shelton.

The anonymous filmmaker who is still working with Democrats told The Sun they have written speeches “for a ton” of candidates and have been flown “from state to state to do candidate training” by “private individuals” or some state Democratic parties. The filmmaker declined to say which candidates they are working with. 

“This is literally half of my day. This is the unpaid half of my day. It’s helping Democrats learn how to sound less like Democrats, so that they can make the argument that independent voters can actually hear,” the filmmaker said.

One House Democrat who has worked directly with the filmmaker told The Sun that the filmmaker has met with politicians for one-on-one meetings at the Beverly Hills Tennis Club, an exclusive, members-only club frequented by celebrities.

Hollywood to Dems: Stop Saying ‘Affordability’ 

In addition to in-person coaching sessions, the filmmaker also sends emails to dozens of Democratic lawmakers and candidates with messaging advice. The Sun viewed over half a dozen emails they had sent this election cycle, including one where they advised Democrats to stay away from their favorite word: “affordability.”

“I HATE the word affordability. No one in the real world says it. No farmer in history ever said to his wife, ‘I’m having a real affordability crisis lately.’ It’s another cotton-candy Democrat word,” the filmmaker wrote. “Try THIS instead: The Cost of Trump.”

“This can mean higher prices for eggs, gas, diesel, fertilizer, insurance, utilities. It can mean the closing of rural hospitals, the end of Medicaid, the rise of A.I. without any guardrails,” they added. “The list is endless — but ALL of these things are The COST OF TRUMP. I just tried this phrase on a breakfast attended by 20 people. It CRUSHED.”

In another email, with the subject line “WHITE POVERTY,” the filmmaker wrote: “Among the many poor and low-income voters in the US, 66 million are white. They comprise 40% of the electorate in swing states. They largely voted for Biden in 2020 and then stayed home in 2024.”

“Kamala [Harris] tried to sell joy to people who couldn't afford eggs. And we made things worse by correcting their pronouns,” they added. “All they really want is someone who will go to bat for their families in real and meaningful ways.”

And in a third email, the filmmaker urged Democrats to stop saying that Congress did not approve Trump’s war in Iran because it “sounds like whining.”

Democrats should instead say that “we are better off” without the Islamic Republic of Iran, the filmmaker wrote, but that Trump is not the person to lead because his policies “have been catastrophic.”

The House Democrat who spoke to The Sun said that some of the emails are “very eccentric but I read them and they’re helpful.”

Still, some Democrats were quick to downplay filmmakers’ involvement in the party’s messaging.
House Dems 11/12/25 (7857x5196, AR: 1.51)In 2011, after Democrats lost control of the House, then-Leader Nancy Pelosi met with people in the film industry to discuss ideas about how they could win back the majority, the former DCCC official said. But, they added, Pelosi took these meetings because “It wasn’t just Nancy Pelosi wanting to hear people’s thoughts, it was Nancy Pelosi doing very important donor maintenance.”

“Let’s just say that when I got briefed on the results of these sessions, they were not things that we ran and shared with our candidates because they just weren’t relevant,” the official said. Pelosi’s office did not respond to The Sun’s requests for comment.

Another Democratic consultant who has extensive experience with the intersection of actors, screenwriters and politicians said that sentiment continues in the 2026 election cycle.

“I don’t need them for comms strategy, I need them for their fucking fame and money,” the consultant told The Sun. “After all, the last thing any campaign needs is another cook in the kitchen when writing talking points.”
]]> Fetterman Says He Won’t Leave His Party if Democrats Win the Senate https://www.washingtonsun.com/2026-election/fetterman-democratic-party-gop-convention Igor Bobic The Pennsylvania senator’s statement came hours after he made a video cameo at Republicans’ convention. Thu, 10 Sep 2026 01:54:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/2026-election/fetterman-democratic-party-gop-convention Sen. John Fetterman
Bill Clark/AP
Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman sought to tamp down speculation about his political future on Wednesday, vowing to remain a Democrat if his party wins the Senate in November.

“I’m a lifelong Democrat who votes overwhelmingly with my party-and should the Senate flip in November, I will still be the 51st vote that I ran on,” Fetterman said in a statement to The Washington Sun.

Fetterman spoke out after his surprise cameo at the Republican convention in Dallas earlier Wednesday night. In a short video appearance, Fetterman criticized democratic socialists and praised his fellow Pennsylvania senator, Republican Dave McCormick. The appearance was highly unusual and drew sharp criticism from some Pennsylvania Democrats.

The senator told The Sun his comments were meant to introduce McCormick “as a great American and friend.”

“We are in different parties, but are both Team PA,” Fetterman said in the statement. “We have delivered hundreds of millions of dollars back to Pennsylvania, fought for improved transportation and affordable housing, and the Steel Way of Life.”

Speculation has grown rampant within both parties about Fetterman’s political future in recent months following his criticism of Democrats while their odds of taking control of the Senate have grown ahead of the November midterms. Some former Fetterman aides have expressed concern he could leave the party in a scenario where Democrats win a Senate majority by a single seat in November, giving him more influence.

Earlier this year, Fetterman said his “red line” for departure would be if the party officially adopts an “anti-Israel” platform. He also set up a joint fundraising committee with McCormick, another highly unusual move that raised eyebrows among his Senate colleagues.]]> Democrats Think Seth Moulton's Failures Are a Warning for 2028 Candidates https://www.washingtonsun.com/democrats/seth-moulton-loses-massachusetts-senate-primary-ed-markey Christa Dutton How much do voters care about age over ideas? Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:39:59 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/democrats/seth-moulton-loses-massachusetts-senate-primary-ed-markey Rep. Seth Moulton
Moulton, who arrived in Congress by beating a nine-term incumbent, was once part of a rising class of young(ish) Democrats styling themselves as the next generation leaders of their party. (Andrew Harnik/AP)
Each time he’s tried to climb the political ladder beyond his seat in the House of Representatives, Rep. Seth Moulton has pitched himself as someone who can usher in the Democratic Party’s next generation.

And each time — including in Tuesday’s Massachusetts Senate Democratic primary, in which voters picked Sen. Ed Markey over Moulton — voters have rejected him.

Moulton, who arrived in Congress by beating a nine-term incumbent, was once part of a rising class of young(ish) Democrats styling themselves as the next generation leaders of their party. He was part of a failed effort in 2018 to oust Nancy Pelosi as the top Democrat in the House Democratic Caucus, arguing that “Our party is changing, our country is changing and our leadership should change, too.” His bid for president in 2020 — which kicked off with, “The greatest generation saved our country from tyranny. It's time for our generation to step up and do the same” — fell short.

In his campaign against Markey, Moulton declared, “I’m running against the senator’s decision, after 50 years in Washington, to run for another term at age 80.”

Now, Moulton’s failed Senate bid in one of the last major Democratic Party showdowns of the cycle is a warning to the party as Democrats begin to assemble for what’s expected to be a messy 2028 presidential race. The lesson from his collection of unsuccessful campaigns, other Democrats say, is that it’s not enough to just position yourself as the poster child of a new generation of leadership — winning candidates need to have something actually new to say. 

“The moment that we're in right now isn't just about electing young people, but it's about electing people who have new and big ideas,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida, the youngest member of Congress at age 29 and a rising star in the party.

In some ways, the Moulton-Markey primary in a state as blue as Massachusetts turned the party’s biggest intraparty feuds on their head. The younger candidate in this primary was more moderate than the older incumbent. Even during an insurgent wave that has led to at least seven other Democratic incumbents losing their seats, the 80-year-old Markey won reelection in part because of his progressive bona fides — despite a gaffe during a debate that showed his spotty understanding of AI platforms.

Moulton, whose campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment, fell short of convincing voters, but he also couldn’t convince much of the party to back him: Markey gained momentum in the final weeks of the campaign as he notched endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and longtime ally Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Sanders, a kingmaker for the left wing who has his own track record of running competitive if ultimately unsuccessful presidential campaigns, was frequently named in interviews as an example of someone older being able to energize the party.

“This is the same reason that Bernie keeps winning reelection, even though he's a little bit older,” said Charles Hughes, chair of the College Democrats of Massachusetts, which endorsed Markey. “As long as the candidate shows that they're capable of fighting for those progressive causes and fighting for the issues that young people care about, I think age is a secondary factor.”

These generational questions are already following Democrats into the 2028 presidential race. Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, 39, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, 44, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, both 53, are all considered to be among the youngest possible contenders.

“These candidates who run on change will have to prove that they actually are making change in order to do that, not just showing that they are a younger face necessarily,” said David Hogg, founder of Leaders We Deserve, which works to elect young Democrats.

Moulton’s loss reflects how the party has evolved since former President Joe Biden’s aborted reelection campaign. Youth is still important for young Democrats, but they say they want more than just a number.

“Age to me isn't really the big thing,” said Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old lawyer who beat Rep. Diana DeGette, 69, in Colorado’s 1st District this summer. “It's about, does your platform actually speak to what this new generation of politics is demanding?”

Even if Moulton wasn’t successful at running as a change agent, there are Democrats who think there’s a case to be made for candidates trying to run on changing the status quo, regardless of their age or how many times they’ve tried it.

“The system is still very stale, and so even a guy like Seth is still a younger candidate in relation to what people see in Chuck Schumer, for example,” said Tim Ryan, a former lawmaker from Ohio who unsuccessfully ran against Pelosi in 2016 for House minority leader.

“People want a new set of eyeballs on the problem,” he went on.

Moulton on Tuesday signaled he planned on continuing to play a similar role in the future.

“Challenging the establishment and calling for a new generation of leadership isn’t easy, but it is necessary," he said in a statement after the race was called. "I will continue to push the Democratic Party – and our country – to look towards the future.”

–
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.
]]> Democrats Are Getting Some Answers to Their Chatbot Problems https://www.washingtonsun.com/2026-election/ai-chatbot-chatgpt-democrats-campaign Elena Schneider New research from a Democratic-aligned firm estimates chatbots get 650,000 questions about politics every week. Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:26:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/2026-election/ai-chatbot-chatgpt-democrats-campaign Jon Ossoff
New research using Sen. Jon Ossoff's campaign points a way forward for Democrats on adapting for AI. Hyosub Shin/AP
Democrats insist their campaigns need to take AI chatbots seriously. And now some think they have early answers for how to actually make that happen.

A recent study, commissioned by Democratic-aligned public relations firm Orchestra and shared first with NOTUS, analyzed how voters use large language models to extract information about candidates and issues — a new digital frontier where the parties will battle for primacy. The research, conducted by the AI-marketing platform Evertune, estimated that chatbots are asked 650,000 prompts about politics weekly, primarily through ChatGPT and Google AI.

Chatbots, and how voters use them, are injecting a complicating dimension into campaign digital strategy this year. It’s another way to target voters, strategists from both parties acknowledge, and they’re racing to figure out how to influence the information those AI-generated bots spit out. In 2024, early iterations of these chatbots pumped out false and misleading data on voting, raising more warnings for both parties.

“The best campaigns are usually the ones that have the best sense of how the electorate is living their lives and receiving and sharing content and information at that moment and do their best to mirror it in their own resourcing and approach,” said David Plouffe, who advised the project. “LLM now joins the stage with Tiktok, Instagram and YouTube as a core challenge and opportunity for campaigns to navigate and master.”

Chatbots won’t forecast a winner or endorse a candidate, the study found when it tested those questions. But when asked about the candidates generally, their platforms and campaign promises, that’s when the quality of a candidates’ digital footprint became more clear.

In one test case, the researchers compared the AI-generated answers for the policy positions of Democratic Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff and GOP Rep. Mike Collins for their hotly contested Senate race, where it found Ossoff’s easy-to-read and well-annotated campaign issues pages gave him the upper hand in generating citations. “Answer engines repeatedly return to Ossoff pages,” the research found, because they were “detailed” and “clearly labeled.”

But Republicans hold an advantage on their economic storytelling through chatbots, the study found — a key issue for the midterms, which have been dominated by cost-of-living concerns. Through repeated engagement with the chatbots, the Republican economic pitch, centered on producing more energy coupled with reducing the cost of government, is more coherent than Democrats’, the study said. Democratic arguments are “fragmented,” as the models “do not consistently assemble them into the same overarching account,” the study said.

“When a party frames an issue consistently across campaign content, official records and media coverage, models are more likely to reproduce it coherently,” the study said. “If the response sounds scattered, the model may be reflecting deeper communications problems: the lack of a consistent message, the lack of a sufficient paper trail supporting that message — or both.”

Out of the AI-generated answers it tested, the study found chatbots predominately cite news coverage, but the “strongest URL” references were explainers, both from news outlets and partisan sources, like party platforms and campaign websites. The study urged campaigns to clarify their own candidates’ digital presence on issue-specific topics as a way to influence those answers.

It also found that YouTube clips of previous interviews or coverage — once seen as a one-off news cycle hit that doesn’t live beyond a single day — can take on new life through AI-generated answers through chatbots, which frequently cited those videos.

The study laid out other advice to campaigns: Treat campaign websites as resources, not just fundraising hubs and create content that “starts with a problem,” the same way a voter interacts with a chatbot.]]> JD Vance Is Rattling the GOP’s Old Guard https://www.washingtonsun.com/2028-election/jd-vance-rattling-gop-old-guard-thatcher-friedman Jeff Stein Reaganites see their chance at a comeback in 2028. Vance isn't saying what they want to hear. Tue, 25 Aug 2026 10:00:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/2028-election/jd-vance-rattling-gop-old-guard-thatcher-friedman JD Vance
Vice President JD Vance criticized British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, an ally of Republican President Ronald Reagan. Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Vice President JD Vance has attacked several conservative icons in recent weeks, unnerving many in the Republican Party’s old guard ahead of the 2028 presidential primary.

Last month, Vance criticized British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, an ally of Republican President Ronald Reagan, for economic policies that he said moved the country “further away” from prosperity and Christianity. Vance said it was “obviously a good thing” that the American right was distancing itself from Milton Friedman, long regarded as the intellectual godfather of modern conservative economics.

And at an event Friday in Ohio, Vance intensified this battle, calling The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board "the voice of big business" that wanted “to ship your jobs overseas” and “let anybody who wants to come into the United States of America with no vetting and no care.”

These broadsides have provoked fresh resistance among the Republican Party’s orthodox economic conservatives, many of whom had long hoped to reassert their free market agenda after the departure of President Donald Trump. Even some Trump supporters now see Vance’s alleged ideological heresies as disqualifying.

“You can’t be the Republican nominee for president if you actually think Margaret Thatcher and Milton Friedman are not the future direction of the party,” said Stephen Moore, a Reagan acolyte who has served as an outside adviser for Trump. “He’s off message right now and that’s going to be a big problem for him.”

It “is very concerning” that Vance was listening to “people who are not Reaganite Republicans and not even Trump Republicans,” Moore said. Vance’s allies dismiss these critics as a narrow elite almost entirely confined to Washington, pointing to the vice president’s high approval rating among Trump supporters.

The skirmishes, primarily playing out on social media, provide an early window into the factional rifts on the right expected to burst to the surface next year once there is an open contest for leadership of the Republican Party.

A spokesman for Vance declined to comment. The vice president’s allies, however, say they relish a confrontation with what several referred to as the “rump” wing of the Republican Party that defied Trump in the 2016 and 2024 presidential primaries.

“The president helped save the Republican Party in large part due to his populist economic message. If he had not come along, the Republican Party would be on the brink of extinction,” said Alex Bruesewitz, a political adviser to the president.

Most polling thus far suggests Vance is highly popular among the president’s supporters, and Trump has faced similar criticisms for his insistence on using tariffs in defense of America’s industrial base.

“The same forces who fought against Trump in 2016, who said he’s an antisemite and a leftist and pro-abortion — all these establishment types are back 10 years later, and now they’re just older, uglier, dumber and with less influence than ever before,” Bruesewitz said.

Vance has broken with conservative economic dogma on a greater scale than Trump, pushing family benefit policies, questioning bedrock assumptions of U.S. monetary policy and suggesting that economic growth has been overrated by policymakers. On Friday, he renewed his attacks on American elites "from both political parties" who "spent the last 40 years telling you it didn't matter if we made things right here or whether we made them in overseas countries," an implicit rebuke to the pre-Trump view of trade on the right.

Phil Kerpen, president of the conservative group American Commitment who described himself as “90%” a supporter of Trump, said Vance has been “clearly trying to be as transgressive against the free market ideological wing of the party as possible as a way to distinguish himself. I think it’s substantively wrong and destructive.”

Already many traditional Reaganites reconciled themselves to supporting or working for Trump despite the president’s support for high tariffs and resistance to cutting entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security. Vance takes conservative politics further away from the template Reagan set in the 1980s, said Vance Ginn, who served as chief economist in the Office of Management and Budget during Trump’s first term.

“As a classic free-market guy, I’ve been pretty concerned about the direction we’re going down for a while now. With JD Vance, it’s on steroids,” Ginn said. “Yeah, I’m nervous about it. Definitely.”

Vance’s precise policy convictions remain inscrutable on a number of issues, in part because of his relatively short time as a public figure before rising to the vice presidency in which he has marched in lockstep behind the president’s agenda. He has fallen in line behind Trump’s policy positions on taxes, trade, regulation and immigration, leaving his personal positions a matter of some speculation.

When he has taken policy stands of his own, he's shown a desire to break from conservative orthodoxy. Vance has not just been a staunch defender of the president’s high tariffs but gone out of his way to affiliate himself with some of the policy’s most ardent defenders, including Oren Cass, founder of the think tank American Compass.

Where Trump mollified many Reaganite conservatives by passing into law two of the largest tax cuts in modern American history, Vance’s tax positions have been more heterodox.

In 2024, Vance pushed for the elimination of a tax break for large corporate mergers. As a senator, he pushed for a penalty on executives of large failed banks, endorsing legislation with prominent progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts).

Perhaps most strikingly, Vance in 2024 called for the Child Tax Credit to be boosted from $2,000 per child to $5,000. During debates about the tax bill, he also expressed openness to raising the top rate on the richest taxpayers.

As a senator, Vance expressed openness to a $20 minimum wage and called for Google to be broken up. He praised Lina Khan, who was appointed by President Joe Biden to lead the Federal Trade Commission, and who infuriated conservatives by pursuing an aggressive antitrust policy.

In one 2023 clip recirculated among conservatives earlier this month on X, Vance expressed skepticism to the dollar’s status as a reserve currency. The world’s banks and governments hold their financial reserves in dollars, which makes it more expensive than other currencies. This depresses domestic manufacturing by making American exports more expensive, but also means that the federal government can run large deficits, which help subsidize consumer lifestyles.

Vance’s call to upend this balance, in place for more than 80 years, has baffled the conservative policy community, though Trump has also expressed ambivalence about the strong dollar policy.

“I am not convinced by his current arguments — trade, monetary policy, getting rid of the reserve currency. All of that is a recipe for things to be very expensive in the U.S., and we have an affordability crisis as it is,” said Doug Holtz-Eakin, who served as a senior policy adviser to Sen. John McCain’s (R-Arizona) 2008 presidential campaign. “This is absolutely being discussed — though one of the beauties of all these discussions is they’re usually way ahead of schedule and totally irrelevant in the end.”

Despite the hand-wringing on the right, Democrats say Vance’s populist instincts are largely for show.

The vice president has long been close with billionaires in Silicon Valley. Vance ultimately supported Trump’s 2025 tax bill, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates will result in 10 million people losing their health insurance. The legislation, the largest safety net cut in modern American history, also slashed food stamps for lower-income households.

“Vance may try to distance himself from neoclassical economics on his press tours, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen any action from him that’s any different,” said Liz Pancotti, vice president of policy, advocacy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, a left-leaning think tank. “He talks a big game, but falls to the exact same corporate interests that the party is beholden to.”

On the other side, some conservatives are also holding out hope that the Republican Party turns on Trump’s policies, whether in the 2028 primaries or sooner.

Most Republican members of Congress, as well as most Republican governors, remain more aligned with Reagan economic principles than either Trump or Vance. It is also possible that a disastrous 2026 midterm outcome for the Republican Party, caused in part by high prices, would intensify internal criticism of the president’s tariff policies.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a potential 2028 contender, has already broken with the president’s trade agenda. Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, another potential presidential candidate, is similarly widely viewed as articulating a more business-friendly agenda than Trump or Vance.

“I don’t think you’re going to see people attack Trump, but you could see people really sharply break with his policies,” said Michael Strain, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank, who has been critical of the president’s economic policies on trade and spending.

The Republican base might not be interested in going back to the traditional conservative views, though. Voters without a college degree comprise a far higher share of the Republican Party under Trump than they did several decades ago, and it is unclear whether they would support a candidate who bucks Trump’s economic views.

“The incipient ‘Never Vance’ campaign is a precise rehashing of ‘Never Trump’ from 2016,” Michael Knowles, a conservative political commentator, said. “It seems to me a small group, albeit one with outside visibility since it’s clustered in the Beltway. All of which is probably good for the vice president if he does indeed run in 2028, as it more firmly establishes him as the authentic successor to Trump.”

Clarification: This story was updated to better reflect Vance's position on the dollar's status as a reserve currency.]]> Shoddy Polling in Battleground States Could Fuel Outsider 2028 Candidates https://www.washingtonsun.com/2028-election/polling-in-battleground-states-2028-candidates Christa Dutton The political class has leaned heavily on polling data to help them make decisions — now they’re wondering about its relevance. Mon, 17 Aug 2026 21:21:29 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/2028-election/polling-in-battleground-states-2028-candidates AP26204068355532
Public polls in Wisconsin exaggerated Francesca Hong’s chances of beating David Crowley, the moderate candidate backed by the state’s governor, last week. (Kayla Wolf/AP)
As the Democratic Party prepares for its 2028 presidential primary, recent polling errors in marquee midterm primary races have left Democrats wondering anew how polls will influence the field’s momentum.

The results in Wisconsin’s gubernatorial and Michigan’s Senate primaries were wildly off from what preelection polling had indicated. These misses raised the question of how much polls can be trusted, and it’s especially on the minds of Democratic campaign advisers and donors as the next presidential cycle approaches and they have to determine where to spend their time and money.

That might leave room for candidates to make the case that they’re competitive based on vibes and other metrics, like fundraising numbers, crowd sizes and number of online followers.

“We are going to enter an election season where there are a bajillion new sources of information, and no standard way to figure out which one means what,” said Ben Wikler, a former chair of the Wisconsin Democratic Party. “We're also going to be in a world where candidates and voters trusting their gut and making their case and seeing how the public responds will be more important than it ever was.”

Wikler watched as polls in his state didn’t capture what he thinks is the most telling measure of a candidate’s chances: conversations with voters.

“There was that kind of evidence on the ground that there was something happening and a new level of energy for Crowley in the final stretch that wasn't picked up in polls that closed a week before,” Wikler said.

Public polls in Wisconsin exaggerated Francesca Hong’s chances of beating David Crowley, the moderate candidate backed by the state’s governor, last week.

Hong, a democratic socialist who was projected to beat her primary opponents by double digits, narrowly lost to Crowley, who had only recently revived his campaign after suspending it.

In postmortem analyses, polling experts found that the Wisconsin polls — complicated by an evolving field of candidates — missed the undecided late voters who broke for Crowley. Wisconsin wasn’t an anomaly, either.

The other high-profile polling error occurred in another battleground state, Michigan, which will be one of the earliest states to vote in the Democratic nominating calendar in 2028.

Poll-defying performances have led to consequential victories for presidential candidates in battleground states like Wisconsin and Michigan. In 2016, polls consistently showed Hillary Clinton ahead of President Donald Trump in both states, which Trump ultimately won.

Since then, multiple cycles of mistaken polls may change how Democrats gauge momentum in what’s expected to be a crowded and unruly Democratic presidential primary field in 2028, particularly as polls have played such a key role in elevating candidates.

“Polls are a snapshot in time, and just kind of catch fire at the right moment, and all of a sudden they're polling in whatever high bracket, and then that helps them raise money, that helps them get on the debate stage, and it becomes this cycle,” a Democratic strategist who worked on past presidential campaigns said. “But that doesn't necessarily reward the best candidate.”

Polls can be consequential in a candidate’s strategy. Candidates use them to decide where to visit or spend money on advertisements, and in presidential elections, polls are one factor in deciding who qualifies to participate in a debate.

The best use of a poll is to show a campaign the voters they can still win over, said Charles Franklin, the director of the Marquette University Law School Poll.

“Sophisticated campaigns are using them to know which groups they still have the opportunity to influence,” Franklin said.

Trouble arises when campaigns treat polls as the only way to judge a campaign’s performance, some Democrats argue.

“The information you get from these public polls is one grain of sand in a beach of information about how to judge a candidate and a campaign, and too often it’s treated as the only piece of information that helps you tell the story of what’s going on,” said an adviser to a potential 2028 candidate who requested anonymity.
]]> DNC Adopts New Early State Presidential Primary Calendar https://www.washingtonsun.com/democrats/dnc-new-presidential-primary-calendar-black-vote-south-carolina Alex Roarty South Carolina will go first, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan and Virginia. Sat, 15 Aug 2026 18:36:21 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/democrats/dnc-new-presidential-primary-calendar-black-vote-south-carolina Ken Martin
DNC officials said the revamped early calendar better reflects the party’s diversity, giving Black and Latino voters a greater say in selecting the party’s leader. Joel Angel Juarez/AP
AUSTIN, Texas — The Democratic National Committee on Saturday adopted a new early state calendar for the party’s 2028 presidential primary in a significant change that will have major implications for how Democrats pick their next White House nominee.

South Carolina will kick off the Democratic primary for only the second time, followed by Nevada and New Hampshire. New Mexico will be the fourth to hold a primary, marking the first time the state has been among the first in the country to vote.

Michigan and Virginia will round out the calendar as the fifth and sixth contests, respectively. Past primaries had included only four early contests.

DNC officials said the revamped early calendar better reflects the party’s diversity, giving Black and Latino voters a greater say in selecting the party’s leader.

“Our 2028 nominee, whoever they are, will have to earn this across the whole breadth of America,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said before the vote.

“No shortcuts, no coronation. You want to lead this party?
You gotta earn it,” he said.

The new calendar was adopted by an overwhelming voice vote, with only a few audible dissents among the hundreds of DNC members gathered.

The adoption of a new calendar is a victory for Martin, who has faced a deluge of criticism over his leadership but has recently signaled that he is open to changes at the DNC.

Democrats adjusted their early primary calendar for the 2024 election as well, giving South Carolina the first primary and adding Michigan to the lineup in the fourth position.

The party’s last competitive presidential primary, in 2020, operated with a dramatically different map, eventually ending with Joe Biden winning the nomination. That year’s primary calendar started in Iowa, followed by New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

Iowa, whose 2020 caucuses were deemed a catastrophe, has since been removed from Democrats’ early state window. New Hampshire has been bumped back from second to third.

The DNC’s decision not to reinstall Iowa to the early window this year drew a sharp rebuke from Iowa Democratic Party Chair Rita Hart, who said the party is overlooking an entire region of the country and turning its back on a state that is on the verge of big Democratic victories in the November midterms.

“The 2028 calendar has no representation of states with a majority of Central or Mountain time zones, and no Midwest state is among the first four,” Hart said before Saturday’s vote, speaking to the committee in dissent.

Iowa Democrats had threatened to go rogue if the DNC didn’t include the state in its early lineup.

Saturday’s vote during the DNC’s general session was the culmination of a monthslong process to overhaul the party’s early state window. The new calendar was widely expected to be adopted after the influential Rules and Bylaws Committee recommended the list of early states last month.

The new schedule has South Carolina voting on Jan. 22, 2028, followed by Nevada on Feb. 1, New Hampshire on Feb. 8, New Mexico on Feb. 15, Michigan on Feb. 22, and Virginia on Feb. 29.]]> Ken Martin Is Open to Change at the DNC https://www.washingtonsun.com/democrats/ken-martin-dnc-change-fundraising-chair Alex Roarty, Elena Schneider The party chair has been publicly defiant after months of challenges. But he’s quietly signalling he’s ready to adjust course. Fri, 14 Aug 2026 22:07:17 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/democrats/ken-martin-dnc-change-fundraising-chair Ken Martin
“Ken understands he’s in trouble and he needs help,” said a prominent Democratic fundraiser. Joel Angel Juarez/AP Photo/Joel Angel Juarez
AUSTIN, Texas — Ken Martin struck a defiant pose at the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting here this week, blowing past criticism of his tenure as he rallied DNC members still largely supportive of his leadership.

But privately, the DNC chair is signalling he’s open to a more conciliatory approach.

Martin has suggested in recent weeks that he is receptive to changes at the DNC, according to four people with knowledge of the situation, including potentially overhauling how the committee raises money and conducts day-to-day operations. The people each described Martin’s openness as a shift from his previous resistance, and an implicit acknowledgment that he needed to do something to quell the widespread criticism of his first year and a half in charge of the DNC.

“Ken understands he’s in trouble and he needs help,” said a prominent Democratic fundraiser, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “He’s asking for help, and I think that’s good, but I remain skeptical that he can turn it around.”

A second person familiar with the situation said Martin is open to bringing on “more talent, people who have experience,” including more actively leaning on former DNC chairs and staff.

“That hasn’t happened over the last year, leaning on people who have done it before, and I think that’s changing,” the person added. Another person familiar with Martin’s thinking said he’s prioritizing efforts to boost fundraising capacity.

Some of those ideas have already floated through the Democratic ecosystem. In a call to DNC members earlier this month, first reported by NOTUS, Martin said he planned to convene a special finance committee to help refill the DNC’s bare coffers “with big name fundraisers” to bring “more financial fire power to the DNC,” according to one person on the call, while also acknowledging “to keep our momentum, we need more resources.” At the time, he didn’t give any more details, including who might help with the project.

When asked for comment, a DNC official referred to Martin’s remarks on the donor call.

A person with knowledge of the situation said Martin was open to a committee made up of prominent Democrats. The same person, though, said Martin was not interested in the DNC taking on a co-chair, a possibility The Bulwark reported earlier this month.

DNC members and operatives have suggested several people — including former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, former New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who also ran for DNC chair — as potential candidates to help Martin and the DNC. Representatives for three of the Democrats declined to comment.

A spokesperson for McAuliffe emphasized that the former governor is not interested in an official position at the DNC but would be happy to help the party on a volunteer basis. McAuliffe is scheduled to speak to members here on Saturday.

“Some outside-the-box ideas are on the table,” the fundraiser said. “I know there’s an interest in putting together a brain trust of folks who can put together a plan, especially in the short term, to help them get what they need between now and the end of the year.”

Two of the people familiar with Martin’s shift said the changes could also affect personnel at the DNC, though they emphasize who the chair could bring on — or let go — remains murky. Any changes aren’t expected until after November’s midterm election.

The DNC, and Martin specifically, is under enormous pressure to recover from 18 months of bad press and poor fundraising. The Republican National Committee has built an enormous cash advantage over the DNC, which is sitting on $2 million in debts. The DNC put up its own headquarters as collateral for a loan it took out in 2025, as it has done in previous cycles. Martin also came under intense scrutiny over the committee’s incomplete 2024 election autopsy report.

Donna Brazile, who twice served as the DNC’s interim chair and recently penned an op-ed urging DNC members to move on from internal party drama, said Martin “is feeding the Democratic family,” while noting that it’s far more challenging to raise significant cash as the party out of power.

“Yes, everybody wants more, everyone wants a second helping, but when you’re able to serve the main course and a little bit more, you can’t focus on the dessert,” Brazile said. “Is he doing what it takes to win in November? The answer is yes.”

But even as Martin quietly signals he’s amenable to changes, he has remained publicly defiant as he conducted party business here — and adamant that he’s not planning to step aside anytime soon.

Martin spent much of Thursday rallying DNC members to support a new early state calendar for the 2028 presidential primary, urging them to put aside negative chatter and focus on the party’s principles and recent electoral successes.

“You see there are all these stories about Democrats in disarray and Ken Martin this, Ken Martin that, and all that bullshit they want to focus on,” Martin said Thursday at a DNC Labor Council meeting. “You know who isn’t focused on that? Me. And you shouldn’t be either.”

Martin on Wednesday reaffirmed during a meeting of the Association of State Democratic Committees that he had no plans to leave his post, according to a person in the room.

For all the criticism, Martin remains popular among many DNC members. At a Resolutions Committee meeting Thursday, one DNC member from Tennessee, William Owen, spoke out forcefully in the chair’s defense as he introduced a resolution meant to refocus attention on what he said was the committee’s good work.

“Are you tired of hearing everyone criticize us for not working? I think all of us are working as hard as we can to elect Democrats,” Owen said. “And this goes especially to our friends at ‘Morning Joe’ and Joe Scarborough. I’m tired of him ragging on our chair, Ken Martin. Ken Martin’s a passionate guy.”

Owen compared Martin to Mike Bobo, a quarterback for the University of Georgia’s football team in the 1990s who he said was often mocked for a lack of physical talent even as he won game after game.

“Well, that’s what our chair Ken Martin is doing,” he said. “And what the Democratic National Committee is doing.”

In an interview after his remarks, Owen praised Martin for raising more money than past DNC chairs and using the cash to fund state parties, which Martin has prioritized.

“What good is money?” Owen said. “Money is only used as a conveyance to vote. Just having a big bank account doesn’t get any votes. It’s spending it.”
]]> Democrats’ Split on AI Grows as a New Plan Emerges https://www.washingtonsun.com/technology/democrats-split-ai-grows-wyden-tax-data-centers Jeff Stein Senate Democrats’ top tax-writer proposes a tax on data centers. Thu, 06 Aug 2026 09:00:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/technology/democrats-split-ai-grows-wyden-tax-data-centers Sen. Ron Wyden
Sen. Wyden's proposal joins roughly a half-dozen competing Democratic approaches to addressing Americans’ unrest around AI, reflecting the soaring political salience of AI policy. Mariam Zuhaib/AP
Democrats looking for an alternative to progressive lawmakers’ proposed moratorium on data centers will now have yet another policy idea to consider.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the highest-ranking Democrat on the Senate’s tax-writing body, on Thursday will propose a new excise tax and elimination of tax breaks for a data center construction boom expected to run into the trillions of dollars.

His proposal joins roughly a half-dozen competing Democratic approaches to addressing Americans’ unrest around AI, reflecting the soaring political salience of AI policy — an area Democrats are eager to win voters’ trust on.

“American communities are rightfully questioning whether the rapid build-out of data centers across the nation will benefit them, as local disruptions rise and Americans grow concerned about the long-term career prospects of millions of workers,” Wyden said. “These proposals are a first step towards safeguarding taxpayer dollars and ensuring there are resources to support American workers displaced by the coming disruptions to the economy.”

Wyden’s plan would prohibit data centers from benefiting from tax-advantaged “opportunity zones,” a tax deduction Republicans extended last year, and a tax incentive for real estate trusts. It would also level a new “low single-digit'” tax on company revenues. Data centers built in space would also be taxed if they provide services to U.S. customers.

Wyden doesn’t intend for the tax to stop the construction of data centers in the U.S. His office hasn’t determined where it would direct the new revenue from the tax. The surging stock market, driven largely by gains from AI, have minted many new billionaires and made Elon Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

Wyden’s proposal stands in stark contrast to that of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), who want to stop data center construction until guardrails can be put in place on artificial intelligence.

The party’s many differing policy proposals indicate AI could be an area of division within the party in the run-up to 2028.

Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has pitched a tax on “tokens” that would charge AI companies per computing power used, rather than the revenue generated by data center operators. His idea would allow the federal revenue gained from the tax to scale with the rise in usage from AI. At least in theory, that would help ensure that the government has the funds to respond to potential layoffs, though some skeptics warn the costs could be passed on to consumers and businesses.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) also teased her own plan in May in an op-ed in Time: a tax on the energy consumed by data centers that would also fall on the AI companies as well. Warren’s plan has been light on specifics but would likely raise substantial funds without shutting down the data centers. The proposal faces criticism from some who worry it would discourage the growth of the energy grid.

Meanwhile, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California), who has said he is looking at running for president, has floated a “Data Center Bill of Rights” aimed at giving localities the legal authority to block data center projects if local investments aren’t made. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona), another possible presidential candidate, has proposed stripping tax breaks for data centers and for paying for upgrades they precipitate for local power grids.

While Wyden’s plan could raise billions from the AI companies, it’s a sharp departure from Sanders’ proposal to implement a 50 percent tax on the AI giants’ equity to bring them under government control. Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have echoed warnings from AI safety experts that the technology poses existential threats to the U.S. economy and even humanity in calling for a complete moratorium on data center construction.

“AI and data centers are going to be a flash point for the next presidential election, and it’s good to see the chief tax writer in the Democratic Party take on this issue,” said Alex Jacquez, senior vice president at the Groundwork Collaborative, a left-leaning think tank, and a former Biden administration economic official. “It can’t be a substitute for all the other things we need to do. But the data centers need to be paying their fair share: These guys are getting fabulously wealthy, and it’s very clear the public is against them.”

So far, little has slowed the rapid advances in the technology powered by an estimated $130 billion increase in data center construction costs in the last year alone. Still, more than a dozen states have considered data center moratoriums of some kind, according to the Brookings Institution, a centrist think tank. Mitch Jones, deputy director of the advocacy group Food & Water Action, said new taxes alone would be "completely inadequate" to address the environmental and energy concerns primarily driving opposition to new data centers.

On the other hand, conservatives and industry groups have pushed back against the proposed restrictions and taxes. The data centers are essential to supporting the development of AI, and Republicans in particular have warned that slowing their growth could give China an enormous advantage in the race to develop the most powerful technology in world history.

But Democrats are looking at polling data that suggests the public is clamoring for federal action. Gallup polling in May found 7 in 10 Americans opposed construction of data centers near them. And the percentage of Americans who believe AI does “more harm than good” jumped from 31 percent last year to 39 percent this year, Gallup found in a separate poll.

“Democrats need a vision here. The technology is going to advance at a rapid scale, and we will be hit pretty quickly by a two-by-four and we have to do something,” said Rob Flaherty, a Democratic strategist who worked in the Biden White House. “On this issue, we have to figure out what we are for fast — capture this moment, or Republicans will do it for you.”]]>