In 2018, House Democrats reclaimed power by hammering Republicans over sweetheart deals for the health insurance industry. This year, the script flipped: Big Tech became the villain, and for the first time in history, tech policy was a centerpiece of campaign ads across the country. The result was a sweeping victory—but also a warning. Voters handed Democrats a clear mandate to hold the tech industry accountable. The worst thing the party could do now is retreat to business as usual in Washington.
The numbers are staggering. From 2020 to 2024, Democrats ran just two ads mentioning Big Tech. This cycle, more than 130 federal and statewide races featured tech as a core issue, including 74% of the DCCC's Red to Blue races, 86% of Senate toss-ups, and 100% of gubernatorial toss-ups. Candidates called for moratoriums on data centers, warned of AI's dangers, and tied their GOP opponents to the industry in terms that once seemed extreme. An SSRS exit poll found that 56% of voters said AI and data centers were a crucial or major factor in their vote. In all, data centers were a central message in over $170 million in ads.
Voters have watched tech giants write seven-figure checks to President Trump's inauguration and political machine. The administration dropped federal investigations into the industry after it became the majority funder of the ballroom Trump is building illegally next to the White House. Big Tech got the tax breaks it long sought, while millions of Americans saw their healthcare benefits slashed and their energy bills skyrocket. Trump even insulted working-class and rural data center opponents and branded AI skeptics 'THE ENEMY!'
No wonder that in January, six in ten voters told pollsters the industry had too much influence in Washington, and by a two-to-one margin believed the Trump administration was too cozy with Big Tech. Meanwhile, Democrats' advantage on handling AI's impact grew from 8 points in the summer to 12 in September. Americans now trust Democrats more than Republicans on healthcare and cost of living—the issues that matter most to voters. AI and technology concerns have surged; data scientist David Shor found AI rose in importance more in a single week this fall than in the entire previous year.
Tech is now central to affordability, as data centers drive up power bills and Big Tech uses market dominance to charge Americans more than neighbors for the same products. It's a jobs and economy issue, as chatbots and AI agents transform work. It's a rural and environmental issue, as companies gobble up farmland, drain aquifers, and fire up new fossil fuel plants. And while this happens, a handful of tech billionaires get richer on the backs of the people whose lives they are upending.
So here's the strategy for Democrats over the next two years: govern like we campaigned. Use the gavel to rein in the AI industry, expose Big Tech's excesses, force Republicans to choose between voters and donors, and bring Big Tech's CEOs before Congress to answer for dangerous products and corrupt data center deals. Most importantly, build an agenda big enough to carry into 2028.
That means passing a comprehensive social media, data privacy, and AI safety bill that holds companies responsible. It means burying the industry's scheme to ban state AI laws and writing into law that Big Tech, not families, pays for its data centers. Make the companies profiting from AI pay their share, and use that money to rebuild what a decade of neglect and months of Elon Musk's DOGE decimated. Ensure workers whose jobs AI is upending share in the wealth it creates, and generate new jobs with new public works projects. Harness AI for the public good—a technology sector that answers to citizens, not just shareholders. Then, make the industry that strained the grid help pay for the clean energy future.
This tech accountability mandate is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to show the American people that Democrats can think big and be bold. If we can make Big Tech answer to the public and ensure this technology serves all Americans, not just the billionaires who own it, we won't just earn a coalition big enough to win the White House in 2028. We'll have a movement built to last, a roadmap for unlocking our potential, and a future where our country is reaching for its highest heights.
Sacha Haworth is founder and CEO of the Tech Oversight Project. She is a veteran of Democratic campaigns all over the country, working for the DCCC, House Majority PAC, and on Capitol Hill.
