Republican governor asserts states’ right to legislate AI
Utah Governor Spencer Cox speaks during the Utah 2034 Organizing Committee press conference on February 10, 2026 in Milan, Italy. Mike Lawrie/Getty Images
Utah Governor Spencer Cox acknowledged the logic to the Trump administration’s plan for U.S. AI dominance, but not at the expense of state laws ensuring safety.
Utah Republican Governor Spencer Cox weighed in on the regulatory debate between the federal government and state governments on Thursday, supporting states’ agency in regulating aspects of artificial intelligence development and deployment.
Speaking in Washington, D.C., during the Politico Governors Summit, Cox emphasized his concern about the harms new technologies are inflicting on minors. He said that while he supports the Trump administration’s posture on unleashing American AI, he wants state authority over certain safety issues.
“It's one thing if … we're fighting China and you're developing your model, but once you start selling sexualized chatbots to kids in my state, now I have a problem with that, and I'm going to get involved there, and the Supreme Court is going to back me up on that,” Cox said.
He added that states should play a role in the implementation and deployment of AI systems across various sectors, agreeing that new data center construction to support the large volumes of compute generated by increasing AI use should occur, but at the expense of individual corporations.
“We should be supporting these data centers –– it doesn't mean we should be handing out favors to these data centers,” he said. “These companies have more money than any companies in the history of the world. They can build these things.”
Cox cited Utah’s updated energy laws that allow new energy production for large-load users, namely AI developers. He said that this change helps protect consumers from having to offset rising electricity prices driven by AI computations.
“Let's use this technology to benefit humankind, and let's regulate it to make sure they don't destroy humankind. I don't think that's a contradiction. I think that's common sense, and I think that's where most Americans are,” he said.
Cox’s comments add new color to the friction within the Republican Party between respecting state AI laws while supporting President Donald Trump’s mission to spur AI innovation. This manifested in the unsuccessful AI moratorium that first appeared in a draft of 2025’s budget reconciliation package in the House.
Despite support in the upper chamber from Republican leaders like Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, fellow party members like Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., voted against the moratorium’s inclusion in the bill in order to protect existing state legislation.
The Trump administration is still angling to limit what AI laws can be enacted at a local level. In December 2025, he signed an executive order that would instruct federal agencies to review state laws for potentially onerous or burdensome regulations that could hinder U.S. leadership in AI.