AI’s Power Grab Has to Face Affordability Politics: Conor Sen

Even as the labor and housing markets slow, the “three A’s” of the Trump economy have kept things chugging along in 2025: artificial intelligence, asset prices and the affluent. Last week’s elections showed voters have a fourth “A” in mind that threatens the current dynamic: affordability.

In state-wide elections in New Jersey, Virginia and Georgia, rising power bills were front and center in messaging from the winning candidates. Mikie Sherrill, who won New Jersey’s gubernatorial election by a larger-than-expected margin, said she planned to freeze utility bills in her first year and declare a state of emergency on utility costs. Virginia’s Governor-elect, Abigail Spanberger, ...