Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow is about to make artificial intelligence’s scary side a central part of her campaign for U.S. Senate.

In a policy plan shared exclusively with NOTUS, McMorrow is proposing a federal jobs program that would create professional apprenticeships for early-career workers to get trained for jobs that are resilient to AI automation. The plan would also expand unemployment benefits to support workers displaced by AI.

“This is a topic that increasingly comes up more and more, particularly for young people and people who have been working in office jobs that in the past haven’t been automated, but now, increasingly are,” McMorrow told NOTUS. “This is a policy proposal to lean in and recognize that this disruption is happening right now, and we can’t afford to wait.”

McMorrow’s AI Workforce Reinvestment Fund, as the proposed program is titled, would be funded through a new tax on large corporations’ use of AI, according to her campaign.

McMorrow has foreshadowed her AI policy plan with more frequent postings about AI on social media and by criticizing AI-powered dynamic pricing and political spending by AI industry leaders.

Taxing corporations’ AI use has grown in popularity among some Democratic candidates, as many technology companies have recently claimed to spend more on AI than on wages for their human workers. But like any new tax, McMorrow’s proposed levy would likely face opposition by most Republicans, who today control both congressional chambers and the White House.

McMorrow’s increasingly AI-centric campaign is the latest example of how some Democrats are leaning into voters’ AI skepticism, with broad swaths of the electorate concerned about how the technology might negatively affect their jobs and livelihood.

Some concern springs from the spiritual, as on Monday, Pope Leo XIV released a nearly 40,000-word encyclical letter addressing the rapid pace of AI development, calling for Christians and people of “goodwill” to remain “profoundly human” as AI threatens significant societal change.

Then there are the videos of college graduates booing mentions of AI during commencement speeches.

Young people seem particularly weary of AI, with only 18% of Gen Z respondents saying they feel hopeful about the technology, according to recent polling from Gallup. A Pew Research Center poll from last year indicated that 50% percent of Americans are “more concerned than excited” about AI, compared to 10% who are “more excited than concerned.”

Meanwhile, April polling by The Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos found that 51% of Americans don’t trust either Republicans or Democrats to do a good job at handling AI. Another poll from Politico and Public First found that people who voted for Donald Trump in 2024 are evenly divided as to whether the AI risks outweigh the benefits, while significantly more Kamala Harris voters say the risks outweigh the benefits.

McMorrow is locked in a tight Democratic primary race with Rep. Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed.

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.). Jose Juarez/AP

They are looking to succeed Sen. Gary Peters, a fellow Democrat. The primary will be held Aug. 4 and the winner will probably face Trump-endorsed Republican Rep. Mike Rogers in the November general election.

In terms of AI policy, El-Sayed has focused on data center regulation, with a policy proposal seeking job guarantees in communities that greenlight data centers and energy usage requirements for data center operators. Stevens has mostly avoided the issue on the campaign trail while advancing legislation in the House that would promote AI adoption.

Abdul El-Sayed. Jose Juarez/AP

The extent to which AI will upend the job market is hotly contested. Some tech executives and economists have repeatedly dismissed fears of AI jobs displacement, arguing that the technology will create demand for new jobs. However, other economists are concerned about the prospect of mass unemployment fueled by AI.

McMorrow said her plan reflects lessons from previous waves of automation that hit the automotive industry in Michigan and other Midwestern states in the 1980s.

“We hope for the best-case scenario, but Michigan has seen the impact of when we hope for the best and don’t plan for the worst,” she said. “The auto industry was roiled by globalization and by automation, so we’re taking a lot of the learnings that we took from the auto industry to make sure that this plan prepares for the event that jobs are disrupted. How can we ensure that we have protections for people to give them career paths?”

McMorrow cited Acrisure — a Grand Rapids, Michigan, insurance company, which last week announced plans to lay off over 2,000 employees this year due to the company’s growing AI use — as a reason plans to address AI job loss are increasingly necessary.

While AI-related industries like data center construction have boosted employment growth in the trades, a Goldman Sachs report estimates that AI could automate tasks that account for 25% of all work hours, while another report by the firm warns that workers whose jobs are replaced by AI might face long-lasting impacts to their economic wellbeing.

McMorrow is releasing this plan at a time of division among Democrats, as progressives are leaning into AI backlash while other Democrats are striking a more moderate tone.

Many candidates are also wary of being targeted by outside spending groups that have received tens of millions of dollars from tech executives. So far, the largest pro-AI super PAC, Leading the Future, has spent roughly $14 million in House races across the country through mid-May, according to AI news site Transformer.

“The sad reality is the amount of money that AI companies are pouring into campaigns all across the country to take down anybody who dares to stand up with them, and in my mind we’re prepared for that,” McMorrow said, “but we can’t afford to not do the right thing by people.”