These major issues have brought together Democrats and Republicans in states
These major issues have brought together Democrats and Republicans in states
Publish Date: 2026-02-26 16:22:00
Source Domain: www.opb.org
A data center owned by Amazon Web Services, front right, is under construction next to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Berwick, Pa., Jan. 14, 2025.
Ted Shaffrey / AP
Unlike the deep partisan divides grinding Congress to a halt, Democrats and Republicans at the state level are coming together on some of the most significant issues of the 2026 legislative season.
Legislators in most states want to regulate artificial intelligence and curb the sprawling, electricity-hungry data centers that make AI possible in the first place.
Big tech has “scrambled the typical ideological alignments of the left and the right,” says David Primo, a professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester in New York. “Conservatives and liberals are saying, ‘Well, here’s an opportunity for us to stop what we think is a problem.’”
And while the two parties remain far apart on many issues — like tax policy, Primo says — it’s not just big tech that has Republicans and Democrats aligned.
Regulating artificial intelligence
Ron DeSantis of Florida and Kathy Hochul of New York, two governors on opposite sides of the political spectrum, sound a lot alike when it comes to reining in AI.
DeSantis, a Republican, is backing legislation in Florida called the Artificial Intelligence Bill of Rights. The proposal, working its way through the state Senate, makes it illegal to use a person’s name, image or likeness without their consent, requires anyone under 18 to have parental permission to engage with companion chatbots and mandates that bots remind users they’re not talking to humans.
“I really fear that if this is not addressed in an intelligent and proper way, you know, it could set off an age of darkness and deceit,” DeSantis said when proposing the bill package. Tech companies have to be regulated, he says, because they have prioritized profits over user safety.
New York already requires chatbots to identify themselves as non-humans….
