OpenAI Pitches New Deal-Style Agenda for AI Before 2028 Election

OpenAI's chief global affairs officer, Chris Lehane, published an essay on November 4 arguing that the 2028 presidential election could become the defining political test for artificial intelligence, and he wants candidates to start building policy now rather than reacting to public anger later, according to TechCrunch.

Lehane compares the moment to the New Deal, the suite of federal programs President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed after industrialization and the Great Depression upended the prior economic order, TechCrunch reported. He argues Americans today feel a similar loss of control over their economic futures and calls on politicians to find what he terms a "compelling third path" so people can share in AI's gains rather than simply absorb its disruptions.

What does Lehane's essay actually propose?

The essay lays out five policy priorities covering worker protections, education, AI safety, and data center development, TechCrunch reported. Lehane frames these as a bridge between unchecked AI expansion and outright restriction, urging lawmakers to treat AI anxiety the way New Deal-era leaders treated industrial-age anxiety — as a problem to be managed through policy rather than dismissed.

Why are critics skeptical of the New Deal comparison?

Kate Brennan, who leads AI and corporate power policy at the AI Now Institute, told TechCrunch that Lehane's framing marks a shift from OpenAI's policy posture a year earlier, when the company's public agenda centered on accelerating AI development, cutting regulatory barriers, and expanding infrastructure. She said many of the new proposals would still encourage wider AI adoption and support the data center buildout OpenAI needs to grow.

"Invoking a New Deal metaphor is to invoke state capacity to actually benefit the public," Brennan said, according to TechCrunch. "This is written by a private company that is trying to advocate for policies for its own benefit. It is ahistorical at best and harmful at worst."

The original New Deal built worker protections and placed limits on corporate power. TechCrunch reported that it remains unclear how Lehane's vision would hold AI companies accountable for the economic disruption the technology could cause, since the essay offers few concrete mechanisms to prevent AI's financial gains from concentrating among a small number of firms.

Why is OpenAI making this push now?

The essay landed days after Democrats flipped control of Congress in the midterm elections amid voter frustration over the cost of living, TechCrunch reported. Opposition to data centers emerged as a bipartisan concern in several races even though AI itself was not a dominant campaign issue, according to the outlet. Separately, progressive organizers have pointed to affordability messaging as central to the party's midterm gains, a dynamic detailed in HTT News' coverage of the 2026 sweep.

That backdrop gives Lehane's argument some traction: affordability is already shaping up as a central issue heading into 2028 as Americans contend with inflation, tariffs, and rising living costs, TechCrunch reported, and AI could become a larger part of that debate as voters weigh data centers' effect on electricity bills, job displacement, and whether AI's economic gains flow mainly to a handful of large companies.

What does Lehane leave unaddressed?

Lehane acknowledges those concerns in the essay but largely pitches AI as a path to greater prosperity for Americans who adopt it, rather than detailing how the company would be held accountable if adoption instead displaces workers or concentrates wealth, TechCrunch reported.

Data box: the numbers in play

• Five policy priorities outlined in Lehane's essay, spanning worker protections, education, safety, and data center development, per TechCrunch.
• 2028 is the presidential election cycle Lehane's essay identifies as the defining test for AI policy.
• The essay published November 4, 2026, days after Democrats won control of Congress in the midterms, according to TechCrunch.

What happens next in Washington's AI debate?

TechCrunch's reporting does not specify which lawmakers or candidates have responded directly to Lehane's essay, but it frames the document as an early marker in what is likely to be a longer fight over how AI policy gets written heading into 2028. Brennan's critique suggests advocacy groups will continue to press the question of enforceable accountability, while OpenAI's own framing suggests the company intends to stay active in shaping that conversation rather than leaving it to Congress alone.

For now, the essay stands as a public opening bid from one of the industry's most politically engaged companies, built around a historical analogy that supporters say captures real public anxiety and critics say obscures who stands to benefit most.

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