Meet the 5 Democrats poised to shake up Washington’s AI safety debate

The AI safety community is feeling optimistic after the Democrats’ midterm sweep elected several candidates promising stricter regulations on the technology.

After years of stalled AI regulation in Congress, advocates for stricter guardrails on the technology are hopeful the new class of House and Senate members could turn the tide in their favor.

While AI was not the top issue for voters, it played a significant role, with candidates across the country floating proposals to quell concerns over technology safety, job security and data centers.

Now, several of these candidates are heading to Washington, offering a “reset” on AI policy, advocates told The Hill.

“It’s an opportunity for people on both sides of the aisle to reconsider how they want to approach this topic of AI. There is now this feeling of great possibility,” Connor Leahy, an AI researcher leading the nonprofit Control AI, which argues for ending development of superintelligence.

Alexander McCoy, a Democratic strategist working on AI safety, said it’s “an incredibly hopeful outcome for humanity.”

Here’s who to watch on AI safety in Congress next year.

California state Sen. Scott Wiener (D), who will fill the seat of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was one of the first state lawmakers to push legislation to address AI safety concerns.

Wiener was the lead author behind California’s S.B. 1047, the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act, one of the first policy proposals to require AI models to undergo safety testing before public release.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) eventually vetoed the legislation, but a later bill authored by Wiener, the Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, or S.B. 53, was signed by the governor last year.

S.B. 53 established new transparency requirements for large AI labs, including mandated safety frameworks along with transparency and safety incident reporting. New York and Illinois later passed similar bills.

On the campaign trail, Wiener said he would craft legislation on AI “kill switches,” safety standards, legal liability and international partnerships. He also vowed to expand unemployment benefits ahead of potential job displacement and use tax policy to ensure AI’s benefits are distributed to the public

“Congress hasn’t acted. I did. I took on Big Tech,” Wiener said in one ad.

He will represent most of San Francisco, where many of the most popular AI tools are developed.

Rep.-elect Manny Rutinel (D-Colo.), who unseated Republican Gabe Evans in Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, was one of the AI safety community’s most-anticipated candidates. He received monetary support from several political action committees on AI safety, including Public First and one run by crypto billionaire Chris Larsen.

Rutinel sponsored various AI safety laws in Colorado, including a first-in-the-nation law requiring “high-risk” AI developers to “use reasonable care to avoid algorithmic discrimination.” He has also spoken out about the existential risks around the technology.

Shortly before the bill was supposed to go into effect, Colorado repealed it and replaced it with a narrower measure.

Rutinel leaned into the populist sentiment among voters, arguing the AI firms “are putting profits ahead of people.” He has also advocated for protections for AI whistleblowers, mandatory incident reporting and independent testing of AI systems.

Like Rutinel, Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.) takes a populist approach to the technology and the companies developing it.

In an in-depth AI policy platform released last June, El-Sayed became the first politician to call for public ownership of frontier AI firms, going a step further than his ally, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

The Vermont independent last month proposed far-reaching measures to control AI development, including a sovereign wealth fund that would take 50 percent stakes in the country’s largest companies and use them to give Americans an annual paycheck.

“AI isn’t just any other tool. Even today, it holds the capacity to destroy our jobs, deny our healthcare and surveil us,” El-Sayed said on the campaign trail. “That power can’t sit solely within the control of a few billionaires.”

The Michigan progressive, meanwhile, proposes requiring all frontier AI labs to be chartered as public benefit corporations to ensure “profit cannot come at the cost of public safety, civil rights or democratic integrity.”

His proposal includes an automation levy, or a pre-worker-equivalent tax on AI-driven automation, that can be used for education, unemployment benefits, wage insurance and small business revolving loans.

El-Sayed has also discussed AI safety, calling for a federal agency like the Food and Drug Administration to test models before they are deployed.

A similar idea was floated at one point by officials in the Trump administration, though President Trump instead created a voluntary testing framework for AI labs.

McCoy said he is “incredibly excited” for El-Sayed’s role in the upper chamber.

El-Sayed “made clear that this is a top issue for him, recognizing the ways AI is putting our economy, our jobs, and our safety at risk, and is bringing his fierce intelligence and relentless dedication to bear on the problem,” McCoy added.

Rep.-elect Micah Lasher (D-N.Y.) is heading to Washington to represent New York’s 12th Congressional District. The primary race for the Democratic nomination was one of the most closely watched races for the tech industry, but not because of Lasher.

Lasher beat out New York State Assembly member Alex Bores, who had more than $8 million spent against him by the Silicon Valley-backed super PAC Leading the Future. The opposition campaign put Bores’s name on the radar, prompting more than $20 billion in support from AI safety groups.

Bores was targeted because of his campaign on AI safety concerns and sponsorship of New York’s Responsible AI Safety and Education (RAISE) Act. Like California’s S.B. 53, the law requires AI firms to publish information about their safety protocols.

While Bores lost, Lasher is also a vocal critic of unregulated AI. Lasher was a co-sponsor of the RAISE Act. According to his campaign website , Lasher introduced a bill to create a first-in-the-nation insurance program in New York state.

He also co-sponsored legislation to impose a moratorium on new data center projects in New York, along with proposals to safeguard the use of AI in hiring decisions and in the classroom.

Rep.-elect Sam Forstag (Mont.) was one of several Democrats across the country to flip a GOP seat. Forstag, a former smokejumper and union leader, will represent Montana’s 1st District, covering the city of Missoula and the western portion of the state.

Forstag beat out Aaron Flint, who received more than $500,000 from American Mission PAC, affiliated with the Leading the Future network.

“Sam Forstag took on the chosen candidate of the anti-regulation super PAC and won, running on a strong platform that would rein in data centers, put guardrails on AI development, and stand up for workers, kids, and businesses harmed by AI,” McCoy told The Hill.

Leading the Future pushed back on claims it is against regulation, maintaining it supports candidates who will help advance a “positive, forward-looking agenda for AI innovation” in Washington.

Like others on this list, Forstag expressed concerns about AI’s existential risks, especially after an ominous warning from an AI researcher about the advancing capabilities of self-improving AI.

Congress has “not done a damn thing to provide any sort of safety precautions for these AI companies,” Forstag said in a video in September, adding, “this technology is moving incredibly quickly and Congress is moving too damn slow.”