Much like the race for supremacy in nuclear arms and space exploration during the Cold War, the United States once again finds itself contending with a communist rival with vast capabilities in a cutting-edge field likely to define the world for generations to come. AI, however, in many ways poses an even more complex set of challenges as the U.S. and China move to set and advance their agendas. As the debate over AI policy plays out in Washington, no issue animates support for an aggressive AI buildout more than the national security implications.
In Newsweek’s AI Policy Scorecard, 86 members received the highest Booster score of 5 in National Security for their positions on AI issues tied to national security and competition with China. That’s more than the other four questions covering regulation, data centers, jobs and safety. The caucuses sit closer here than on any other question in the scorecard—Democrats average 3.9, Republicans 4.4.
Thornton China Center who specializes in U.S.-China relations and emerging technologies, told Newsweek. The largest share of lawmakers—191—received a Mixed score of between 2.8 and 3.2, while Skeptics outweigh the Boosters at 162 to 146, according to the AI Policy Scorecard data. But even among those who aim to rein in AI at home through stricter regulation, some lawmakers stand out as prominent proponents of the narrative that the field constitutes a powerful tool in the superpower contest with China.
In the Democratic camp, they include Senators Dick Durbin and Amy Klobuchar, each of whom has a 5 in the national security and China component of AI policy while scoring under 2 in the other categories concerning domestic policy, indicating a track record of seeking more stringent checks and balances on AI at home. Among Republicans, Senator Josh Hawley emerges as one of the most prominent proponents of curbing unbridled AI expansion at home while pushing for supremacy against China in this field. Seth Center, former State Department acting special envoy for critical and emerging technologies who co-led the first U.S.-China AI dialogue in 2024, argued the two positions may ultimately collide.
Republicans within this faction include Representatives Elise Stefanik of New York, who is retiring from the House, Jodey Arrington of Texas, Richard McCormick of Georgia, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Steve Scalise of Louisiana. Meanwhile, the lead Democrat in this group is Representative Jared Golden of Maine, also retiring at the end of this term, who ranks second behind Pennsylvania’s Senator John Fetterman as the top-ranked AI boosters in his party. Jessica Brandt, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Foreign Malign Influence Center, pointed to “a broad consensus that AI could transform the balance of military and economic power globally for decades to come and have profound consequences for the rights and freedoms of millions of people around the world.” “That shared understanding creates a simple, unifying logic: it’s better to win the race with China than to lose it,” Brandt told Newsweek.
Yet she argued that “the consensus breaks down over what ‘winning’ actually means,” as goals remain ill-defined by Democrats and Republicans alike. And given Beijing’s notable advances in AI, Brandt argued that time was of the essence for outlining U.S. objectives and concrete strategies to pursue them. After all, if models indicate AI could one day render humanity obsolete, unchecked proliferation could also theoretically challenge the dominance of the Chinese Communist Party, which Brandt defines as one of the top motivations coloring China’s discussions on safety.
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