Big Tech Pivots to Democrats as Midterm Power Shifts

Following midterm elections that shifted the balance of power in Washington, major technology companies are working to repair relationships with Democrats, according to reporting from TechCrunch.

For the past two years, the industry focused on ties with President Donald Trump and his administration, benefiting from looser AI regulation, tax breaks, and the pausing of certain federal investigations. However, with Democrats pledging tighter AI oversight, companies are now pursuing a bipartisan approach. Meta President Dina Powell McCormick recently stated at WSJ Tech that companies must be bipartisan to gain buy-in for their initiatives.

OpenAI has taken visible steps in this direction, hiring Jessica Schumer, daughter of Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, and rebranding its data centers as "compute campuses." Other initiatives include Meta's America’s Workforce Academy, Anthropic's Claude Corps, and a partnership between OpenAI and the American Federation of Teachers. J.B. Branch, director of federal AI governance and technology policy at the nonprofit Public Citizen, characterized these moves as "PR washing" to address an "optics problem."

Despite these efforts, analysts suggest the primary regulatory battles may shift away from Washington. Aryan Ranjan, founder of Baraza, told TechCrunch that most action will likely occur at the state level, where governments have already passed regulations and filed lawsuits. This is compounded by the fact that the Trump administration previously created the AI Litigation Task Force to challenge state laws.

While the industry seeks federal favor, it faces a volatile environment. Data center moratoriums are increasing, and Alice Marwick, director of research at Data & Society, suggested the pivot toward the left may be "a little too late."