# Obama tells Democrats: make AI the issue

> Behind closed doors in New York, Obama pushed his party to build an AI agenda before the midterms, and the polling suggests voters are already there.
- Title: Obama tells Democrats: make AI the issue · Fox News | Shortify
- Summary: Behind closed doors in New York, Obama pushed his party to build an AI agenda before the midterms, and the polling suggests voters are already there. AI has…
- Keywords: ai policy, obama, democrats, data centers, 2028 election, news, politics, tells, make, issue, Fox News
- Source: Fox News — https://foxnews.com/media/obama-privately-sounds-alarm-dangerous-ai-urges-democrats-put-issue-center-agenda
- Author: CJ Womack
- Published: 2026-09-13T00:00:00+00:00
- Read time: 2 min
- Topics: ai policy, obama, democrats, data centers, 2028 election, news, politics
## A warning behind closed doors
At a private New York fundraiser on Thursday, Barack Obama told Democratic donors and lawmakers to put artificial intelligence near the center of the party's agenda for the midterms and 2028.
## Moving fast in private hands
His core worry is control. The technology is being built almost entirely by private companies, and he thinks policymakers are already behind.

> This is something that is moving very fast in private hands, and if we don't get on top of it, I think can be dangerous
## The upside he still believes in
Obama framed oversight as the price of the payoff, pointing to faster drug development that could cure diseases and pathways to a clean energy future.

> If we do get on top of it, I do think it's beneficial.
## A Republican agrees, partly
RNC member Amy Kremer told Fox News Digital the risks are real but rejected Obama's remedy, saying the answer is neither Washington bureaucrats nor Big Tech writing its own rules.

> You don't have to agree on politics to recognize reality
## Voters do not want the data centers
A July Fox News poll found 70% of registered voters opposed building AI data centers in their communities. Only 30% supported them.
## Jobs and privacy, too
An April poll found 63% think AI hurts privacy and 56% say it hurts job creation. Just 21% think it helps.
## The split inside the GOP
Several Republican candidates have called for limits or pauses on new data center projects, breaking with Trump, who says communities that reject them will end up poor.

> The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor
## China is the counterargument
House Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford calls slowing AI a national security risk that hands the race to China. Trump's March policy framework leaned the same way.
## A framework is coming this fall
Obama pressed Hakeem Jeffries to stage a public conversation if Democrats take the House. Jeffries agreed, and House Democrats are drafting an AI framework for release this fall.

> Republicans have abdicated their responsibility to govern on behalf of the American people.
## Key takeaway

AI has stopped being a tech story and become an electoral one, and both parties are scrambling to figure out what they actually want to do about it.