The search for a winning message on AI is pushing candidates and lawmakers into unexpected political territory.

Why it matters: With the midterms approaching, AI is creating alliances across party lines while opening fissures within them.

Here are three ways AI is scrambling the political map.

1. Centrist Democrats versus progressives on data centers

New York made waves as the first state to impose a data center moratorium — a product of Gov. Kathy Hochul joining forces with progressive state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez. But the two policymakers are just getting started on reconciling their differing approaches to AI.

• Gonzalez previously advocated for a three-year moratorium and is working to extend the one-year pause in Hochul's executive order. She's spearheading a statewide tour to advocate for Hochul to sign her Responsible Data Center Development Act.
• Gonzalez is going beyond Democratic strongholds, with her tour reaching into red and purple parts of upstate New York and the Hudson Valley.
• Where Hochul and Gonzalez land is an early test of just how much progressive and centrist Democrats can align on an issue that's mobilizing voters across the political spectrum.

What they're saying: "We need Gov. Hochul to step up and sign the bill and provide full protection to the people of New York," Sustainable Finger Lakes president Gay Nicholson said in a call with reporters ahead of the tour.

• "Please just don't leave our small rural towns with limited staff and resources at the mercy of an extractive industry that enriches themselves at the expense of upstate New Yorkers," said Nicholson, whose organization is among those advocating for Gonzalez's bill.

Zoom out: For a brief moment, Hochul and President Trump were sounding similar, until Hochul took it a step further with her moratorium executive order.

• "If Hochul is serious about lowering costs, she should embrace the Trump Administration's energy agenda," a White House official told Axios in a statement following the signing of Hochul's executive order. "Democrats want to stifle innovation and weaken America's competitive edge over China in the AI race."

Keep reading below.

Republicans are facing their own AI divides, while surveillance concerns are reviving old alliances across the aisle.

2. Trump world versus Tea Party advocates on data centers

Activists with ties to the Tea Party movement are protesting data centers, calling on Republicans to "get their heads out of the sand and stop pretending like this is not an issue, because it is an issue," Humans First spokesperson Chris Barron said.

• Humans First describes itself as a grassroots conservative organization fighting for an "America First AI policy," and its chair, Amy Kremer, is a longtime Tea Party figure.
• The group, however, is being disavowed by conservative outlets and facing accusations of being an astroturf organization aligned with the left.

The intrigue: Barron, a Trump surrogate in 2016, pushed back against criticism that liberals holding anti-Trump signs showed up at data center protests last month organized by Humans First, noting that "the foundational building blocks" of MAGA included converting people into Republican voters.

• "We've been loyal supporters of the president from the very beginning," Barron said, adding, "I feel confident that at the end of the day, the president will understand what the base of his party wants."

The other side: While Humans First says it represents the MAGA base and conservatives, sources familiar with the administration say there's no alignment with the organization.

• "There is no one in this group that has any access, visibility, or influence in the White House at all," one source told Maria, referring to Humans First.

3. Libertarians and progressives on surveillance

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas) has begun strategizing for a Democratic takeover of the House, eyeing common ground with libertarian lawmakers on the right.

• The two factions have historically aligned on surveillance, but AI is giving the issue a bigger playing field, and congressional leaders like Casar plan to take advantage.
• Casar is focusing on privacy and closing surveillance law loopholes that allow brokers to collect data from Americans through corporations.
• In places like Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Republicans are zeroing in on AI-powered surveillance and joining Democrats on legislation to create safeguards against government and industry misuse of personal data.

The bottom line: Don't look for clean Republican-versus-Democratic platforms on AI ahead of the elections.

Open models dodged the Trump administration's latest effort at regulating AI, but they may not remain outside government review as they become more powerful.

Why it matters: Open-source advocates say the models are key for democratizing access to AI and keeping it out of the control of a few powerful players.

• But as capabilities improve and introduce new risks, policymakers are not ready to walk away from regulating open source entirely.

State of play: The Trump administration has long viewed anything at or above the capabilities of Anthropic and OpenAI's most advanced models as needing some form of government collaboration, regardless of whether they're open- or closed-source, a source familiar with the administration's thinking said.

• Open-source players proposed ways to treat their models once they reach frontier capabilities in their recommendations to the White House for the AI framework.
• Some companies that were consulted said they wanted to be subject to the pre-release government review, a source familiar with the discussions said.

Context: The AI framework defines a covered frontier model as a closed-source model with state-of-the-art capabilities and national security risks, Maria previously reported.

• Open models are excluded, and the framework explicitly says nothing in it should be interpreted as restricting open models once they've been released.
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director Michael Kratsios have recently posted in support of open-source AI.

What we're watching: A national security presidential memorandum issued in June could separately set standards for the government's use of open models.

• By early September, officials are due to issue a new policy governing AI use in national security systems.
• By early October, officials are tasked to develop standardized methods for testing and evaluating AI systems, as well as baseline AI security and risk-management practices.

The October implementation deadlines could clarify how open-weight models will be evaluated and procured for national security use, said Eric Syphard, Booz Allen's head of AI.

• Booz Allen is building in-house AI evaluation capabilities so it can independently test open-weight models before putting them into customer systems.

The bottom line: Major U.S. companies are embracing open-source models and AI developers are stepping up efforts to compete with China in the space, even as the government weighs greater oversight.