David Plouffe

David Plouffe is an American political and business strategist best known as Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign manager and later a senior adviser in the Obama White House. He is a partner at Orchestra, co-leading its advisory practice, and has also held senior strategy and policy roles at Uber and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

AI Backlash Could Define the 2028 Presidential Race

David Plouffe, Barack Obama’s former campaign manager and a partner at Orchestra, argues that AI is becoming a political problem because Americans experience it less as a tool than as another elite-driven transformation being imposed on them. In his view, economic anxiety, distrust of technology leaders, the legacy of social media, fears about children and jobs, and local fights over data centers could turn AI into a dominant issue by the 2028 presidential race. Better messaging will not solve that backlash, Plouffe says; voters will need concrete evidence that they have agency, economic pathways and local benefits as the technology spreads.

Alex KantrowitzMay 22, 202622 min read