# Jay Obernolte **Jay Obernolte** is a Republican member of the U.S. House from California, first elected in 2020. His district covers the High Desert and mountain communities of San Bernardino County, with small parts of Los Angeles and Kern counties. Before politics he founded FarSight Studios, a video game developer, in his college dorm room in 1990. He has an engineering degree from Caltech and a master's degree in artificial intelligence from UCLA. He served on the Big Bear Lake city council and as its mayor, then in the California Assembly from 2014 to 2020. **Why he's on the map:** Obernolte is the House Republicans' point man on AI regulation, and the lead House author of the industry's main goal: one federal rule that stops states from writing their own AI laws. That puts him at the center of the fight described in [[Federal Preemption]] and the [[AI Action Plan]], alongside the White House AI adviser [[David Sacks]]. The pro-AI super PAC [[Leading the Future]] backed him in 2026, and Sacks's co-investor [[Sky Dayton]] has given $75,000 to his fundraising committee. ## AI policy - **The House task force.** In February 2024 Speaker [[Mike Johnson]] and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries set up a 24-member bipartisan Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, chaired by Obernolte with Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) as co-chair. Its December 2024 report laid out dozens of recommendations for Congress. - **The 2025 moratorium.** A ten-year ban on state AI laws was written into the 2025 [[Big Beautiful Bill]]. The Senate voted 99 to 1 to remove it. Obernolte later said the moratorium was never meant as a permanent fix but as a way to force Washington to act first. - **The Great American Artificial Intelligence Act.** On June 4, 2026, Obernolte and Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) released a 269-page draft bill. It would block state and local laws "specifically regulating the development" of AI models for three years, through December 2029, while leaving states free to regulate how AI is used. It would also set federal testing rules for the largest AI developers. Supporters say one national standard spares companies a patchwork of state rules. Critics, including the ACLU and Americans for Responsible Innovation, say it would turn existing state protections into a ceiling before any federal replacement exists. ## In the party leadership In April 2026 House Republicans elected Obernolte chair of the House Republican Policy Committee, the conference's in-house policy shop, to replace Rep. [[Kevin Hern]], who left the post to run for the Senate in Oklahoma. He also sits on the Energy and Commerce and Budget committees and chairs the Science Committee's subcommittee on research and technology. ## Money and the 2026 race - **Outside support.** Fox News reported that [[Leading the Future]], the AI-industry super PAC network funded by Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI president Greg Brockman, backed Obernolte in his June 2, 2026, primary, calling him a proven champion of the industry's agenda. - **A Sacks-circle donor.** [[Federal Election Commission]] records show [[Sky Dayton]] gave the Obernolte Victory Fund, the congressman's joint fundraising committee, $25,000 on November 6, 2023, and $50,000 on December 8, 2025. Dayton is a co-investor with Sacks and one of the three large outside donors to Sacks's political committee. - **A close general election.** The congressional maps adopted under [[Proposition 50 (California)]] were in use for the first time in 2026. Obernolte finished first in the June primary with 57 percent. In November he faced Democrat Tessa Lynn Hodge, a social worker, and a week after Election Day the race had not been called: the Secretary of State's count showed him ahead about 51 percent to 49 percent. ## Connections - [[Federal Preemption]] · [[AI Action Plan]] · [[David Sacks]] · [[Leading the Future]] - [[Sky Dayton]] · [[Purple Good Government PAC]] - [[Mike Johnson]] · [[Kevin Hern]] · [[Big Beautiful Bill]] · [[Proposition 50 (California)]]