A few prominent voices on the left have helped create the impression that Democrats in 2026 are hostile to technology. With Democrats making gains in Congress, some may conclude that the tech industry took a major hit — a striking idea for voters who have come to see technology’s advance as nearly impossible to stop.
That reading, though, misses the bigger picture, regardless of how dramatic proposals from Bernie Sanders and others to restrict advanced AI may sound.
The left’s leading figures aren’t trying to roll back technology across the economy or government. They want to direct it — and, through it, shape what happens next.
In the immediate campaign, Democrats didn’t win by running against tech. More broadly, the left, both in the United States and abroad, appears increasingly convinced that technology is essential to ending the Trump era and restoring its influence.
Consider the election data. Adam Kovacevich, a Democrat who supports technology and founded the Chamber of Progress after working in Google’s public policy team, noted that AI and data centers ranked just 19th among concerns in a New York Times/Siena poll. In governor’s races, Democrats who opposed data-center bans generally did better than those who supported them. Most candidates Kovacevich describes as pro-innovation have won so far.
Exit polls point in a similar direction. Close to 40% of voters named the economy as their top concern, while almost a third chose the state of democracy. Others prioritized immigration, health care, foreign policy, and crime.
Of course, technology touches nearly all of those issues. It has reshaped the economy and is changing how government works. It figures into efforts to fill skilled jobs with immigrants, and health care is becoming more technology-driven. Foreign policy is increasingly shaped by competition over military technology, while cyberattacks have made technology part of the conversation about crime, too.
In that sense, Donald Trump’s memorable observation that everything is a computer now seems less far-fetched than it once might have.
The left’s political leaders aren’t rejecting these sweeping changes. They object to the direction they’re taking, especially since influential parts of Silicon Valley moved toward Trump, believing that alliance would give them more control over their future.
The goal isn’t to make the economy, government, immigration, health care, or foreign policy less technological. It’s to control the technology and, in turn, influence the systems built around it.
Some on the right see this as a sinister project, often describing it in ideological terms such as communism or socialism. There may be something to those concerns. But the right, too, is eager to control technology. That struggle, rather than familiar political labels, may be a better guide to the conflicts ahead. Those labels don’t seem equipped to explain the world we’re moving into.
Across political and social divides, people fear being pushed aside or defeated by opponents who have gained control of powerful technology.
That’s why the midterms were not a referendum on technology’s rapid expansion or its growing influence over American life. Some local elections did produce setbacks for data centers, but the industry’s broader position remains strong. Those defeats may prove to be modest obstacles. And limiting data-center construction alone may not be enough to slow the development of AI.
Tech leaders who backed Trump, including Elon Musk, may face scrutiny or retaliation from Democrats. Still, technology is one of the few forces with significant momentum right now. It was a major beneficiary of the election, and it will shape choices about America’s future — whether or not the public gets much say in them.
