OpenAI Executive Publishes Memo Claiming AI Will Dominate 2028 US Election

On November 2, 2026, The Next Web reported that Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief global affairs officer, said in a memo titled "2028: The AI Election" that AI will be the number-one issue of the 2028 US presidential election. The memo lays out five questions that, in Lehane's view, candidates must answer in order to build an AI agenda. The Next Web added that Politico published the full memo on Monday, one day before its own report, and that Lehane compared bans on data centers to the 2002 vote on the Iraq War.

Later that evening, Business Insider filled in more of the lobbying picture. According to its reporting, Chris Lehane, described as OpenAI's top lobbyist, has privately circulated the memo among prospective 2028 candidates and is urging them to make artificial intelligence a central campaign theme. The memo argues that candidates need a governing philosophy for AI rather than talking points about the issues dominating the campaign, and it warns that opposing the infrastructure needed to build the technology — data centers, in particular — could let China overtake the US in AI. Business Insider also noted that Democrats who take that position could find themselves on the wrong side of the debate.

As of these two reports, the story stands at the point where the memo has been distributed to some contenders and its contents made public, with the 2028 campaign still ahead and no candidate having yet formally adopted or rejected its proposals.