The House Race Putting Big Tech’s Political Standing To The Test

Democrats are testing whether backlash to Big Tech can become a defining political force heading into 2028, as anxieties over artificial intelligence, data centers and surveillance converge with spiraling frustrations over economic insecurity.

That argument is taking shape in campaigns across the country, as progressives connect the expansion of AI and data centers to rising energy costs, potential job losses, privacy concerns and the growing influence of tech billionaires.

But nowhere across the midterm map is this playing out more intensely than it is in Michigan, where Democratic challenger William Lawrence is betting that hostility toward the tech industry extends beyond his progressive base and helps him unseat a first-term Republican.

“This is the movie trailer for 2028,” said Chris Lehane, OpenAI’s top lobbyist, who sees the backlash as part of an “anxiety driven by modernity.” “I think this issue around control over your lives is going to be the issue in 2028,” he said, with AI acting as “a force multiplier.”

It’s a test not only of Big Tech’s eroding standing with Americans — but of how aggressively Democrats will confront one of the world’s most powerful industries, one that has long been an important political ally. The outcome will play a key role both in defining messaging for 2028 and the party’s policy agenda writ large.

Lawrence, who is challenging Republican Rep. Tom Barrett, is a self-described progressive Democrat and former democratic socialist running with Sen. Bernie Sanders’ endorsement. And he’s venturing beyond the anti-data center ads that have peppered airwaves around the country, marrying disparate threads of economic inequality, corporate overreach and privacy under a growing sense that voters have little say over the technologies shaping their lives.

He’s called for a pause in advanced AI development, mandatory AI safety requirements and a national jobs program to counter potential employment losses. His ads warn that data center developers are trying to “jack up our energy bills and ruin our home values.” He has also targeted surveillance technology like Flock cameras, arguing that the public is losing autonomy over decisions affecting people’s homes, livelihoods and privacy.

“The unifying theme is that we are not in control, we are losing control,” said Alex Bores, a former candidate for New York’s 12th Congressional District who lost after a heated primary that saw more than $20 million in AI-linked spending. He now runs Who Decides, a group dedicated to shaping Democrats’ approach to the emerging technology.

This feeling has only been exacerbated, Bores said, following recent incidents in which AI agents evaded their developers’ controls and attempted cyberattacks on websites across the internet launched by autonomous agents.

Adam Kovacevich, founder and CEO of the center-left tech industry coalition Chamber of Progress, described the race as the “one competitive race in the country where the biggest bet is being made against data centers.” The contest, he said, is testing whether a progressive Democrat can win a competitive district with a tech-skeptical message. But he cautioned that even if Lawrence wins, other Democrats may not conclude that campaigning against the industry is a strategy they should emulate.

The question for Democrats is whether Lawrence’s message remains a local campaign argument or becomes part of a broader shift in the party’s approach to technology. A win could strengthen progressives pushing for a more adversarial stance toward the industry, while a loss could give centrists more room to argue for an innovation-friendly approach.

While American voters repeatedly rank cost-of-living issues at the top of their political priorities, and Democrats have made it a centerpiece of their closing message to voters, Lawrence is tying tech to voters’ pocketbooks, making Silicon Valley billionaires, and their economic success, a prominent villain in his campaign.

These executives, he’s said, are “playing games with our future” and steamrolling economically disadvantaged communities in favor of their bottom lines.

“Tech leaders have a brand problem,” said one Republican operative who works with the tech industry, and targeting them is an easy way to score a few political points. They were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

And at least one tech executive has intervened in the race: Elon Musk’s America PAC has spent $340,000 supporting Barrett and opposing Lawrence, which Lawrence has used to try and tie Barrett to the industry. A spokesperson for the PAC did not respond to a request for comment.

Barrett has introduced two bills in the House focused on data centers in the months leading up to the election. One would bar the federal government from overriding local governments’ decisions about data centers while the other would prevent members of Congress from signing non-disclosure agreements regarding data centers.

“He’s tapping into the anxieties of people and communities that are impacted,” Barrett campaign strategist Jason Roe said of Lawrence’s approach to AI. To Roe, Lawrence is using the populist messaging around tech to try and capture a broad swath of voters.

But in polling their campaign has done, Roe hasn’t seen AI or data centers rank higher than the ninth or tenth most important issue voters care about. “It isn’t a top of mind issue for the broad electorate,” he said.

In Michigan, which has seen rapid deindustrialization following shifts in the automotive industry market, Lawrence still thinks his focus on the tech industry will be particularly potent. “I think people have seen the cycle of boom and bust investment and are familiar with broken promises,” he said.

Despite his adversarial rhetoric railing against the tech companies, some in the industry do not see themselves at odds with him. Facing political headwinds, hyperscalers who are looking to build out data centers to power AI development have begun promising community incentives and working with residents to gain approval for their project.

“I think some of [Lawrence’s] messaging aligns really well with how you’ve seen industry develop” and lean into themes of community-based control, said Paul Lekas, head of government affairs and public policy at tech industry group the Software and Information Industry Association.

Telling the American people that they are in charge of AI, not the other way around, is “going to be hugely important for us,” Lehane added.

As a cofounder of the Sunrise climate change organization, Lawrence has been building out his progressive bona fides for nearly a decade. Leveraging voters’ ire against fossil fuel companies, Sunrise made incumbents’ support of the industry a centerpiece of the 2018 midterms to help propel a slate of insurgent candidates to victory, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and now-former Democratic New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland.

And now he’s hearing echoes in voters’ anger over data centers.

Lawrence said he has heard concerns from Michiganders about the computing centers since last October when he attended a local township meeting filled with residents opposing data center development.

“It was packed with people from all walks of life, all across the political spectrum, people from the cities, people from the small towns and from the rural areas,” he said. The “unorthodox political coalition” signaled to him that this issue was going to become a prominent one in the midterm cycle.

“When something has that kind of intensity at the ground, it’s only a matter of time before it starts showing up in the ways that consultants in D.C. are able to recognize,” he said.

Even with Lawrence staking his political chances largely on a voter animosity toward tech, some who work in the industry are not convinced that Lawrence and other progressives who are elected using a tech-skeptical platform will have earned their seat on the issue alone.

“They would definitely be part of this anti-tech caucus, but they weren’t elected based on that,” said one Democratic strategist who advises tech groups, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the race.

And it may not catch on among the rest of the caucus, even if Lawrence wins. “For every Will Lawrence, there are dozens of frontline Democrats who’ve chosen not to advertise on data centers,” Kovacevich said.

But Lawrence is convinced that his focus on tech and those who control it will spur voters to turn out on Nov. 3.

“I think they’ll cast their ballots based on who’s standing with them versus who’s standing with the D.C. insiders and the wealthy people in the country,” he said. “We’re living in the new Gilded Age, and we’re looking for a new social compact that responds to the new technological and social realities of our time.”