California Gov. Gavin Newsom has spent years cultivating relationships with Silicon Valley, vetoing regulations that would have hamstrung AI companies and accepting substantial campaign contributions from tech leaders. But as he prepares for a likely 2028 presidential campaign, he is repositioning himself as a skeptic of unchecked AI development, betting that Democratic voters care more about protecting workers and consumers than protecting corporate profit margins.
The shift is striking. In 2024, Newsom rejected a bill that would have imposed legal liability on AI companies for catastrophic failures and required them to install kill switches. His veto message stressed the need for balance: "Given the stakes, protecting against actual threats without unnecessarily thwarting the promise of this technology to advance the public good, we must get this right."
Today, Newsom is tilting decisively toward the populist end of that equation. Last week, he signed an executive order directing state agencies to work with labor unions, academics and industry groups to assess AI's impact on California workers and offset job losses. This month he submitted a revised budget proposal that would dramatically expand antitrust enforcement targeting companies that use algorithms to set prices. He also hired Rohit Chopra, former chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a vocal critic of AI excess, to lead a state business and consumer services agency.
The political calculation is transparent. A YouGov/Economist poll found that 71% of Americans believe AI development is moving too fast, with 77% of Democrats holding that view. On the left, concerns about AI span from job displacement and soaring electricity costs to fears that a handful of tech billionaires will control economic outcomes through machine learning.
"It should be clear to anyone paying attention to polling or vibes that there is a lot of voter-level concern about AI and costs and who the economy is serving," said Dan Geldon, a former top aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren. "It makes sense that Newsom and other candidates would open channels with populists and consider their ideas." Newsom has indeed been cultivating ties with Warren, among the harshest critics of AI's economic implications, according to recent reporting.
The governor is hardly alone in this repositioning. Other prospective 2028 candidates are staking out similar territory. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker proposed a two-year pause on tax incentives for data center construction. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has begun tying accelerated permits for data centers to company commitments on power costs and worker protections. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called for a data center moratorium and pressed federal officials on water contamination risks.
The tension between these impulses and fiscal reality remains unresolved. Data centers and AI infrastructure generate enormous tax revenue for states. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, is welcoming hyperscaler investments from Amazon and xAI, anticipating hundreds of millions in annual payments to local governments and schools. Even some Republican governors have pushed back on unchecked AI expansion. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for instance, has championed an AI bill of rights protecting data privacy and preventing insurance claims denials based on algorithmic decisions.
Newsom's evolving stance reflects genuine movement in the technology itself, according to Jason Elliott, a policy consultant and Newsom's former deputy chief of staff. "I have never seen an issue move as quickly as AI, and it's not even close," Elliott said. "Every elected official's position naturally should be evolving on AI from week to week and month to month, because the underlying technology itself seems to change every day."
At a Center for American Progress conference in May, Newsom acknowledged the challenge plainly. "The tech genie is not going to go back in the bottle," he said, while calling for fundamental rethinking of how AI development is funded and governed. "The whole system has to be reimagined."
Yet the federal landscape complicates any state-level rebellion against tech interests. President Trump, in his second term, abandoned a planned AI regulation executive order at the last minute, citing concerns it might handicap American competitiveness with China. National security officials warn that unilateral regulation could be costly in the global AI race.
For Newsom, the calculation appears clear: Democratic primary voters are hungry for a candidate willing to challenge Silicon Valley, and the abundance of populist energy on AI gives him room to move left without appearing reckless. Whether that stance survives a general election, where concerns about American technological leadership resurface with force, remains an open question.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "Newsom's pivot is shrewd retail politics, but it rings hollow if he can't explain why workers in a data center economy need AI regulation more than they need paychecks."
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