Democrats weighing 2028 presidential bids are piling onto the AI hate wave in their messaging, per an analysis shared exclusively with Axios.

Why it matters: Democrats are turning AI anxiety into a political rallying cry ahead of 2028, while Republicans remain divided over how to respond.

Driving the news: 2028 contenders including Gavin Newsom, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Jon Ossoff and more have all increased their AI commentary in recent months, per new research from Upswing, conducted on behalf of Reset Tech, a nonprofit advocating for tech regulation.

Among 21 Democrats named as potential 2028 contenders, tech mentions on X nearly quadrupled, and press release mentions nearly tripled since the start of the year.

Tech is now the second-most common topic in releases, trailing only jobs and the economy, with the highest concentration of mentions around data centers and phone bans in schools.

To gather the data, Upswing analyzed nearly 30,000 X posts from 38 accounts…