Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA) says the country’s economic future runs through artificial intelligence — and that AI runs on electricity. Appearing on “The Alex Marlow Show,” McCormick argued that the fastest route to stronger economic growth is pairing AI development with the computing capacity and energy generation needed to power it, according to Breitbart’s account of the interview.
“The driver of power of economic productivity is going to be AI and you have to have computing power and energy to support that,” McCormick said during the appearance.
The remark compresses a policy argument that has been gaining traction among Republicans: that the United States cannot compete in AI without also solving the electricity and infrastructure demands that large-scale data centers create. McCormick, a first-term senator from Pennsylvania, framed the two as inseparable — AI as the productivity engine, computing power and energy as the fuel line feeding it.
An argument built on two inputs
The senator’s phrasing leaves little room for ambiguity. In his telling, boosting economic productivity is not a matter of choosing between technological innovation and energy policy; the first depends on the second. AI models require enormous amounts of computation, and computation requires enormous amounts of electricity, which in turn requires generation, transmission, and the physical hardware to run it all.
That framing puts McCormick in line with a broader Republican message that treats domestic energy production and advanced computing as linked priorities rather than separate policy silos. It also signals where supporters of the approach see the highest-return early action: removing obstacles to building power capacity and data infrastructure, rather than waiting on slower-moving changes elsewhere in the economy.
McCormick did not lay out specific legislation or timelines during the segment as described in the source account. His contribution was the frame itself — a short, direct claim about where the economy’s next leap in productivity comes from, and what has to exist for it to happen.
Why the pairing matters politically
Energy and AI have increasingly converged in Washington’s economic debates. Data centers are projected to drive significant new electricity demand, and lawmakers from both parties have wrestled with how to meet it without spiking costs for ordinary ratepayers or abandoning reliability. For Republicans, the answer has generally leaned toward expanding supply — more generation, faster permitting, fewer restrictions — and pitching that agenda as a growth strategy rather than an environmental one.
McCormick’s comments fit that template. By casting AI as the primary driver of productivity, he gives the energy buildout a clear economic rationale: without sufficient power and computing capacity, the productivity gains never arrive. The argument also implicitly contrasts with approaches that emphasize regulating AI’s risks first, positioning McCormick on the side of acceleration.
Pennsylvania gives him a particular vantage point. The state has been a battleground over energy production and has seen growing interest in data center development, making the intersection of power supply and advanced computing a live issue at home as well as in Washington.
A familiar venue for the pitch
The interview aired on “The Alex Marlow Show,” hosted by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow. According to the outlet, the program broadcasts coast to coast on weekdays from noon to 1 p.m. Eastern on Salem Radio Network stations, airs at 9 p.m. Eastern on the Salem TV news channel, and is released as a podcast weekday evenings at 9 p.m. Eastern, available on YouTube, Rumble, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.
Appearances like McCormick’s serve a dual purpose for Republicans: they reach a politically engaged audience with a message that ties together energy, technology, and growth, and they preview arguments that are likely to resurface as Congress takes up related spending, permitting, and energy measures.
Whether the “AI plus energy” formula becomes the quickest way to supercharge the economy, as the segment’s framing suggested, will depend on how quickly the country can actually build the computing power and generation capacity McCormick described. What the senator made clear is that he sees the two as a package — and that he believes the productivity payoff starts there.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/09/19/republicans-tout-quickest-way-to-supercharge-the-economy/