Founder and CEO, @progresschamber. Democrat. Tech optimist. Ex @googlepubpolicy @limebike. Working to help Dems win again.
Washington, DC
Joined February 2009
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My current sense of the debate among Democrats on legislating vs. oversight - and where to focus each.
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Ways to poll voters about issue prioritization, from worst to best:
- How important is issue X to your vote?
- Pick most impt issue from a short list
- Pick most impt from a long list
- Open-ended
@SearchlightInst did it the best way. And AI / data centers was a blip
I've seen a few of the "Data Center Election!" people say that voters' focus on cost of living tacitly includes data centers.
@TahraHoops broke down what Dems' cost of living ads actually mentioned. Only 9% of the cost ads mentioned data centers.
I must have missed all the Dem candidates who won by railing against Amazon for having too-low prices
VA-05 was one of the few red to blue targets that we unfortunately didn't flip. I guess Perriello's New Republic op-ed arguing against federal AI legislation didn't do the trick
My new piece in @newrepublic: On AI, federal preemption will be what NAFTA was for globalization – a voter litmus test on who reached for water and who reached for gas when their jobs and communities were on fire.
The pro-innovation House Dem bloc is getting bigger.
48 Democrats endorsed by @sliccardo's Innovation For Good PAC have now won their races.
samliccardo.com/candidates
NEW:
Voters gave Dems a pretty clear assignment: Bring down costs.
The new majority’s first bill should be a cost of living bill, aimed at housing, energy, health care, and raising kids, with ideas R's will have a hard time saying no to.
My memo 👇
progresschamber.org/?p=14057…
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I chatted with @leomschwartz about our early outreach to 2028 Dems on tech issues:
Our roundup of how Tuesday's election will affect the tech sector, including:
- The prospect of AI legislation given Trump's veto power
- Why hyperscaler stocks are going up and neoclouds are going down
- The ramifications for Elon Musk
- How 2028 presidential prospective candidates are already getting advice on their AI platforms
- A very, very bad night for crypto
W/ @nickwingfield and featuring @bradrcarson, @JayCarney and @adamkovac
theinformation.com/articles/…
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I'm noticing this morning that a lot of AI Safety crowd are claiming an election mandate - but they are largely hitching their cause to the data center wagon.
Admittedly all the local data center bans passed, and there were at least some Dem ads on data centers (5%).
But there was almost no advertising on AI safety. Sorry, speeches and position papers don't count.
Data center bans were not Dems’ ticket to winning Gov races.
- Dems won every competitive race called so far, regardless of stance. Ford, Sand, and Hobbs weren’t pro-ban
- What Dem flips had in common: ratepayer protections (5 of 5), energy/water limits (5 of 5), ending tax breaks (4 of 5)
- Both nominees backed a ban in 5 states (MI, NH, OH, OR, TX). Dems won 4 of 5, so the ban didn’t decide those races
- Banning didn’t work for Rs either: GOP noms who backed a ban went 1 for 7.
Pro-Innovation House Democrats -- candidates endorsed by @sliccardo's Innovation for Good PAC -- have won 39 out of 40 races called so far.
The new Congress is going to have a strong bench of pro-innovation Dems.
samliccardo.com/candidates
It's funny - the folks trying to wishcast AI into higher salience look at this and say "23% is really high!" Sure, it increased fast.
But zoom out, and AI / data centers had the lowest salience ratings of the 5 issues the exit poll asked about:
How important was AI and data centers to your vote?
Crucial: 23%
Major factor / minor factor / non-factor: 77%
nbcnews.com/politics/2026-el…
How important was AI and data centers to your vote?
Crucial: 23%
Major factor / minor factor / non-factor: 77%
nbcnews.com/politics/2026-el…
A plurality of midterm voters (41%) self-describe as moderate. 63% of those moderate voters are Dems.
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