Dario Amodei's Anthropic is building a dedicated political engagement operation ahead of the 2028 US presidential election, highlighting how crucial government relationships and AI policy debates have become for the rapidly growing artificial intelligence industry. As reported by Fortune, Anthropic is creating a "presidential engagement" programme that will work directly with Republican and Democratic presidential candidates on AI-related issues, help shape the company's political strategy and oversee its political funding activities. The company is currently hiring a Political Programs Lead to spearhead the initiative. “Most companies hire people with Democratic and Republican backgrounds for a reason—the campaigns trust people who…