For decades, American politics has centered on the anxieties of blue-collar workers. Politicians met with waitresses at diners to pitch raising the minimum wage, toured factories to spotlight job growth, and told stories of hardscrabble family roots in cities like Detroit or Pittsburgh. But a shift is underway: white-collar professionals are increasingly becoming the focus of political attention as concerns grow about artificial intelligence's potential to displace college-educated workers.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has positioned himself at the forefront of this development. Since August, he has repeatedly expressed concern that AI could make 'white-collar jobs obsolete,' calling the H-1B visa program 'especially galling' at a time when AI threatens to reduce white-collar positions. His political rise has historically been built on anticipating emerging issues, from early opposition to COVID regulations to leading right-wing attacks on trans issues before they became a central part of the 2024 campaign.

What the Left Is Saying

Democratic leaders and progressive lawmakers are also sounding alarms about AI's impact on white-collar workers. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., released a report in October finding that AI and automation could eliminate roughly 100 million blue- and white-collar jobs over the next decade. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who represents a district centered in Silicon Valley, has proposed a federal jobs guarantee for young Americans and those seeking entry-level positions. At a joint town hall with Sanders at Stanford, Khanna argued that 'the threat to jobs are no longer just blue-collar jobs' and that addressing both white-collar and blue-collar concerns could create a coalition appealing to 'factory towns, rural America and suburban towns as well as urban centers.'

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has also raised concerns about AI's workforce impact. Former Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, who served as the Biden administration's point person on AI, warned that the transition will be 'brutal' and recalled her father's job loss when manufacturing dried up in Rhode Island. She emphasized that if certain demographics 'get disproportionately hurt and we don't take care of them in this transition ... that's going to cause a level of societal, political and economic disruption that this country can't afford.'

Progressive House candidate Saikat Chakrabarti, running in California's 11th District, said AI industry workers believe the government may need to take equity stakes in these companies to address potential displacement. 'We haven't had a situation in the past where automation has come after the highest-earning workers first,' he noted, adding that white-collar workers concentrated in metropolitan areas represent 'a politically powerful bloc of our society.'

What the Right Is Saying

DeSantis is not alone among Republicans expressing concern. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has been actively warning about AI's impact on white-collar jobs. During a recent visit to Vanderbilt University, he heard from college seniors about the difficulty of finding entry-level jobs as employers say AI makes such positions unnecessary. 'We're looking at a massive collapse of the middle class,' Hawley said. 'We simply cannot allow that to happen.' He introduced legislation with Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., in November to track jobs lost to AI as a first step toward addressing the issue.

Former Rep. Brad Carson, D-Okla., now a leader of super PAC Public First Action, warned that politicians may already be too late to prevent significant damage. 'We spent decades watching manufacturing communities hollow out before politicians started paying serious attention, and by then the damage was permanent,' he said. 'The difference this time is speed and breadth.' He noted that white-collar workers in suburban districts whose mortgages are at risk represent 'a very different political force than a hollowed-out factory town.'

However, some Republicans are more skeptical of fears about AI-driven job losses. Nathan Brand, a Republican strategist, said these concerns are misguided, arguing that increased demand for infrastructure and energy driven by AI will trigger blue-collar job growth that in turn boosts white-collar positions. 'Politically, it's going to ultimately fall back into these camps of innovation versus no innovation,' he said. 'Traditionally, conservatives have been on the side of innovation.'

What the Numbers Show

The numbers reveal a workforce in transition. A new NBC News poll found that 57% of voters think the risks of AI outweigh the benefits, with similar shares of white- and blue-collar workers expressing this concern. Notably, 74% of white-collar workers have used AI within the last two months, compared to 50% of blue-collar workers.

There are already signs of a white-collar jobs recession. In November, a record 25% of unemployed workers had four-year college degrees. A Stanford research team found that workers ages 22 to 25 in industries with the most exposure to generative AI experienced a 16% relative decline in employment since late 2022. The U.S. shed 92,000 jobs in February, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, marking the fifth time in nine months the job market has shrunk.

In terms of party identification, white-collar workers lean Democratic by 8 percentage points in the latest NBC News poll while blue-collar workers tilt Republican by 9 points. An Economist/YouGov poll found that 63% of U.S. adults believe AI advances will lead to an overall decrease in jobs — roughly twice the percentage who believed the internet would reduce jobs in a similar 1999 survey.

The Bottom Line

The political landscape is shifting as leaders from both parties grapple with emerging concerns about AI's impact on white-collar workers. DeSantis has positioned himself as an early voice on the issue, potentially differentiating himself in future Republican primaries. Democrats like Sanders and Khanna see an opportunity to build a broader coalition by addressing white-collar anxieties alongside blue-collar concerns. Former Commerce Secretary Raimondo noted that while it may be 'harder to feel bad' for white-collar workers who generally earn comfortable wages, that sentiment will change 'if law firms stop hiring lawyers, or if accounting firms cut their accounting staff in half.' The challenge for policymakers will be balancing support for AI innovation with workforce transition assistance — a debate that is just beginning to take shape in Washington.