Nearly 20 people got the same question. Almost all of them found a way not to answer it.
Axios asked potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders whether they back Senator Bernie Sanders' call for AI companies to stop building systems humans can't control. Only former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel gave a direct, substantive response.
Only One Person Actually Answered
Emanuel didn't embrace Sanders' proposal outright, but he engaged with it directly.
"This is talking around a problem instead of trying to solve it," Emanuel said. "A pause is fine, but then what?"
He called instead for permitting reform and requiring tech companies to pay for the energy infrastructure upgrades their data centers demand.
About half the potential candidates didn't respond to the question at all, including former Vice President Kamala Harris, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Notably, almost nobody who did respond criticized Sanders' position either.
The Ones Willing to Go Further
Ocasio-Cortez and Khanna were the only potential candidates who expressed support for pausing AI data center construction, though neither directly addressed Sanders' broader call to halt AI development itself.
Ocasio-Cortez's office noted she's leading a data center moratorium bill in the House. Khanna said he supports a pause specifically in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, a shift from his earlier position, describing those as places where data centers have been "shoved down the throats of communities."
Other Democrats who've stopped short of backing a moratorium have still moved toward tougher rhetoric. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro's administration has criticized "irresponsible" data centers, and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker revoked tax breaks for them, both reversals from earlier positions. A spokesperson for Arizona Senator Mark Kelly said there should be "no data centers in communities that don't want them."
Progressive pollster Adam Carlson argued the caution carries real political risk. "It's a big strategic error for the Democratic Party writ large not to be the one that's owning this," he said, floating the possibility that a Republican could claim the anti-data-center position first.
Midterm Candidates Are Moving Faster Than Presidential Ones
The hesitation among 2028 prospects contrasts with candidates actually on this year's ballot. A recent Fox News poll found 70% of voters oppose a data center being built in their own community.
Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers, a Republican, backs a one-year moratorium on new data centers. Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton, a Democrat, is calling for a "conditional moratorium." Pennsylvania's Stacy Garrity, a Republican, supports a pause too, a position MAIN has covered as part of the broader midterm data center backlash.
Many politicians in both parties championed data centers in the recent past for the tax revenue and construction jobs they bring. Some Republicans are now uneasy about the backlash specifically because the Trump administration has been among the technology's most visible champions.
Sanders was the first member of Congress to back a data center moratorium last year, a position most Democrats rejected when first asked. Separately, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced last week that the company has temporarily paused some of its own technology training.
What This Means for Miami
Florida is already a live example of this dynamic in action. Republican Byron Donalds won his gubernatorial primary partly on proposed data center restrictions, a race MAIN covered as part of the same national shift in sentiment driving this story.
For Miami's AI and infrastructure investors, the 2028 field's hesitation is itself useful information.
Federal policy on data centers and AI development remains genuinely unsettled heading into a presidential cycle, and the gap between how fast state-level and midterm candidates are moving compared to national ones suggests any federal regulatory clarity is still years away, regardless of which party ends up leading on the issue.
