https://washingtonsun.com/2028-election 2028 Election en-US Wed, 02 Sep 2026 00:39:59 GMT https://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://washingtonsun.com/democrats/seth-moulton-loses-massachusetts-senate-primary-ed-markey 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.
]]> https://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://washingtonsun.com/2026-election/ai-chatbot-chatgpt-democrats-campaign 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.]]> https://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://washingtonsun.com/2028-election/jd-vance-rattling-gop-old-guard-thatcher-friedman 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.]]> https://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://washingtonsun.com/2028-election/polling-in-battleground-states-2028-candidates 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.
]]> https://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://washingtonsun.com/democrats/dnc-new-presidential-primary-calendar-black-vote-south-carolina 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.]]> https://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://washingtonsun.com/democrats/ken-martin-dnc-change-fundraising-chair 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.”
]]> https://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://washingtonsun.com/technology/democrats-split-ai-grows-wyden-tax-data-centers 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.”]]> https://washingtonsun.com/democrats/dnc-swing-left-data-coordination Alex Roarty A new agreement between Swing Left and official Democratic infrastructure could be a template for future data-sharing and coordination. Mon, 03 Aug 2026 10:00:00 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/democrats/dnc-swing-left-data-coordination The Democratic National Committee and a liberal organizing group have struck a first-of-its-kind deal among Democrats to seamlessly share voter data collected on the campaign trail, bolstering coordination between outside organizations, party committees and individual campaigns.

The agreement was reached between Swing Left, the Democratic Data Exchange (the Democratic entity that houses the party's voter data), the DNC and the Association of State Democratic Committees. It is in part an effort to retrofit how the party conducts its field programs up and down the ballot. The goal is to allow Democrats to effectively pool their resources to most effectively and efficiently engage voters.

Officials say they hope the agreement becomes a template for deals between other outside groups and the official Democratic Party infrastructure.

“The DNC is committed to organizing year-round, ensuring Democrats up and down the ballot have the infrastructure to win in 2026, 2028, and beyond,” Catherine Tarsney Kahle, the DNC’s chief technology officer, said in a statement. “We are proud to partner with Democratic Data Exchange and Swing Left to put critical, ground-level voter data directly into the hands of campaigns nationwide and look forward to continuing that work with others.”

Outside groups that ran door-to-door voter outreach efforts were for years legally prohibited from coordinating with candidates and the party infrastructure; they were able to share only a subset of the data they collected from voters, which officials say was of limited use. But a 2024 advisory opinion from the Federal Election Commission allowed the two sides to collaborate with their field programs.

This deal takes the newly allowed coordination to the next level, allowing all parts of the wider Democratic ecosystem to share the entirety of the data they collect from each individual interaction with voters, and to do so instantly.

“That's what this agreement does,” said Yasmin Radjy, executive director of Swing Left. “It allows every volunteer conversation to strengthen campaigns, state parties and organizations across the country. It will help Democrats compete in 2026 while ensuring we're not starting from scratch again in 2028.”

Swing Left has launched a revamped effort this election cycle to reach independent and Republican-leaning voters, hoping its new field program can help Democrats win congressional majorities in purple districts and states.

Some Democratic officials believe the party has fallen behind Republican-backed field programs in recent elections, especially after Donald Trump's 2024 campaign successfully identified and persuaded many voters who don’t often turn out to vote. They hope the Democratic Party, boosted by agreements like these, can catch up in this year’s midterm elections.

“Sharing this data across the ecosystem — along with our collaboration with partners like the DNC and state parties — makes us stronger, helps us work smarter, and sets Democrats up for big wins this November and looking ahead to 2028,” said Amanda Coulombe, chief executive officer of the Democratic Data Exchange.

DDx officials, who helped create the infrastructure that houses the party’s voter data, helped broker the deal.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/technology/lawmakers-ai-wave-stardom Samuel Larreal Politicians who can speak to the high-profile issue are positioned to grow their credibility among voters and with their party. Tue, 28 Jul 2026 09:13:00 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/technology/lawmakers-ai-wave-stardom Artificial intelligence is upending the internet, warfare, science and the economy. It is also disrupting power in Washington by providing a pathway to relevance for politicians willing to grapple with it.

Ask lawmakers on Capitol Hill who work on AI policy why they’re doing it, and they’ll tell you it’s one of the most pressing issues of our time. Observers point out it’s also politically astute of them to embrace the issue: It’s a fast track to higher name recognition, credibility within their party and the groundwork for a platform to run on.

“Whenever there's a developing policy or technology that’s also in the news a lot, you always have a lot of ambitious politicians who love to go running towards the light,” said Eddie Vale, a Democratic political consultant.

“It is definitely growing exponentially, both in terms of like groups and also politicians trying to get involved,” Vale told NOTUS. “When AI first came out, people were thinking about it more as a tech policy issue, but as people learned more about it, they realized it is starting to impact almost every policy area.”

In practice, that means members of Congress across the political spectrum have introduced hundreds of bills aimed at shaping how AI is developed and used. While few AI-related bills have passed, AI regulation is becoming a prized policy space which can be leveraged for political power.

Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, argued AI policy is going to be “a decisive issue” in the 2028 presidential election and beyond. Casar isn’t considered a possible 2028 candidate, but he has recently introduced bills to protect children using AI chatbots and stop AI-powered algorithmic pricing. He’s also proposed taxing large companies' AI use.

“Democrats have this huge opportunity to be on the side of everyday people and leave JD Vance and the Republicans on the side of scumbags like David Sacks and Elon Musk,” Casar told NOTUS.

But it’s not just Democrats whose careers could end up being hoisted by AI.

Three-term Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-California) has long been the point person in the House Republican Conference for AI policy. He co-led a bipartisan AI working group that established the largest bipartisan AI regulatory framework in Congress. Earlier this year, he became the conference policy chair.

When NOTUS asked Obernolte, who was previously a computer scientist and game developer in California, if AI has boosted his career in Congress, he said he hadn't “really thought about it.”
U.S. Congress (5000x3333, AR: 1.50)“For most of us, this is not why we’re doing this. We’re doing this because we care deeply about this issue and we feel that federal action is desperately necessary,” Obernolte said. “We rely on silos of expertise ... on the issues having to do with technology policy, those of us that have a background in technology, I think, we have people that listen to us.”

That background may have helped land his spot in leadership, according to Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Oklahoma), who was policy chair before Obernolte and endorsed him for the role.

“He's done a lot of work on many things, but he’s somebody who certainly understands AI,” Hern told NOTUS. “And that's an area where we have quite a deficiency in Congress. Maybe even more so on the House side.”

“He’s somebody who is obviously educated on it. And I've always said I want people talking about important issues that have actually had experience on the outside, and he's certainly the right person,” Hern added.

Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Massachusetts), who is planning to run for vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus in the next Congress, according to a source familiar with her thinking, recently joined forces with Obernolte to introduce an AI safety bill. The bill would allow the federal government to intervene in the deployment of AI models and create safety transparency requirements for AI companies. Her involvement drew criticism from some members of her party after the release of a discussion draft last month which included language that could limit state-level AI regulation, a policy that is toxic among many Democrats.
U.S. Congress (5000x3333, AR: 1.50)The lawmakers have reportedly continued to make changes to their proposal, but early on it managed to get support from some AI safety advocates and AI industry insiders, which could translate into credibility for her leadership bid.

“Taking on big problems and working across the aisle to solve them is what folks back home elected me to do,” Trahan told NOTUS in a statement. “Automation and offshoring took our jobs a generation ago ... Is this good politics? That's not really how I think about this work. But sure, good politics is being responsive to the people you represent.”

“There's earth-shattering AI news practically every week. It's only going to get more frequent and more serious as these models get more powerful,” she added. “Every member of Congress knows next week will bring something else just as alarming, if not worse. We're responding with the urgency this moment demands.”

The specifics of how AI will change the future remain uncertain, but for people jumping on AI regulation, the uncertainty in the space is part of the appeal.

“It's just the next frontier of policymaking, you know? You can't be here knowing that we're in an era of technological advances and, you know, still on a rotary phone,” Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-New York) told NOTUS.

Candidates are also seeing the political opportunity around focusing on AI and staking their campaigns on it, with mixed results.

In June, New York State Assembly member Alex Bores lost his bid in a Democratic primary to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York) after making AI regulation a central part of his campaign; AI-backed super PACs spent millions of dollars in the race both for and against him. Abdul El-Sayed, who’s running to replace retiring Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), released a populist AI policy agenda that includes public ownership of AI companies. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), who is running for governor in her state, has leaned heavily into AI regulation with a platform that would create protections for children using AI chatbots and safety standards for AI companies.
Election 2026 Michigan (5029x3353, AR: 1.50)“AI, being arguably the most important technology of our time, both in the immediate future and long-term future, will continue to attract a lot of people. Many are trying to get in early at the ground floor,” Caleb Knapp, an AI safety lobbyist at the Alliance for Secure AI, told NOTUS.

“A lot of folks both anticipate and are expecting AI to become much more of a kitchen-table issue because of how it impacts culture and the economy and everything in between,” he said.

Other candidates who might be angling for a presidential to run in 2028 have also tried to shape the AI regulation debate.

Vice President JD Vance, who has long advocated for a relaxed AI regulatory state, has recently advocated for stronger restrictions on the technology. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) has made AI populism central to his politics, advocating for strict regulations that would bar kids from using AI chatbots and force safety-compliance measures for AI companies. And Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California who signed one of the first AI safety laws in the country, has said the U.S. government should own a stake in large AI companies.
U.S. Congress (5000x3333, AR: 1.50)Some members of Congress whose districts house tech companies, and therefore whose work on AI regulation began years ago, argue that the public is pressuring more candidates to weigh in on the issue.

“People are getting more and more questions by their constituents back home, so it's understandable that they're waking up to the issue,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat who represents parts of Silicon Valley, told NOTUS.

And others say they welcome the input of more members of Congress.

“It's a good thing that more of my colleagues are rolling up their sleeves on this issue,” Rep. Sam Liccardo, another Silicon Valley Democrat, told NOTUS. “Ambition in this regard can be positive because for too long, too few of us have been delving into the details.”
]]> https://washingtonsun.com/democrats/ken-martin-dnc-leadership Igor Bobic Few would criticize Chair Ken Martin directly, but they said the organization’s growing problems and fundraising issues were “alarming.” Mon, 27 Jul 2026 23:54:49 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/democrats/ken-martin-dnc-leadership The internal turmoil at the Democratic National Committee has alarmed some top Democrats, who worry the national party organization is not well positioned to make gains in this year's midterms elections.

“Obviously, the amount of money they're raising is alarming,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), a potential 2028 contender who has been stumping for Democratic candidates ahead of November.

The DNC has been plagued by money woes since Kamala Harris’ loss in the 2024 presidential election. The committee even put its physical headquarters in Washington, D.C., up for collateral last year in order to obtain a $15 million line of credit to help invest in off-year elections, NOTUS reported over the weekend.

Ken Martin, the chair of the DNC, is facing growing scrutiny. He was the subject of an internal human resources inquiry after throwing a cell phone in the direction of a young aide in early July, though the phone did not hit the staffer. Then there’s the promised and botched 2024 election autopsy Martin apologized for earlier this year, and many in the party blame Martin for the DNC’s paltry fundraising numbers.

Most elected Democrats are holding their fire on Martin for now, even as they acknowledge issues with the organization under his leadership.

“In a year like this, where there is such enthusiasm among rank-and-file Democratic voters and voters generally, you obviously want to have the strongest organizational footing possible, and so I'm concerned about that,” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) told NOTUS.

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) said that she was “concerned” but believed it was “up to the DNC to decide how they want to handle.”

Potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders are so far staying mum. Representatives for Harris, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“You know, I think they're struggling,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Michigan), another potential 2028 candidate, told NOTUS. “Like, Democrats have been struggling. We're still struggling. A year and a half later.”

Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), who’s also been mentioned as a possible White House contender, said Martin started the job with some “tremendous challenges.”

“He inherited a DNC that had tremendous problems,” Booker said. “He inherited a DNC that was in debt, and he inherited a party that does not have a central leader that we're all looking to.”

But Booker did draw the line at Martin’s reported treatment of the junior aide.

“You should not throw things at staff,” he said.

But the drip, drip, drip of bad news about Martin did prompt some calls for him to step aside.

“As Democrats, we have become too captured by failing strategies,” Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-California) wrote in an X post on Sunday, calling on Martin to step down from his post. “We must fail forward, and pivot. The urgency of this moment will not reward—and our children will not forgive—torpidity.”

Rufus Gifford, a former aide to President Joe Biden who served as finance director for Barack Obama's presidential reelection campaign, said that under Martin’s leadership, the DNC is “spiraling towards irrelevance,” its staff is losing faith, and there is “no saving Martin’s chairmanship.”

Shannon Watts, an author and political activist who served as a member of the DNC’s finance committee in 2024, said she has heard from frustrated donors and lawmakers who have complained about Martin.

“I've heard from very wealthy donors that they are done with the DNC and that they're sitting on donations and giving to individual candidates,” Watts told NOTUS. “And the Congress members who have reached out to me have just expressed frustration because they've brought ideas to Ken and he's just sort of strung them along and never acted on them.”
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