  We explore whether quantum gravity effects within the asymptotic safety
paradigm can provide a predictive ultraviolet completion for Abelian gauge
theories. We evaluate the effect of quantum gravity fluctuations on the running
couplings in the gauge sector and discover an asymptotically safe fixed point
of the Renormalization Group. In particular, if the strength of gravitational
interactions remains below a critical strength, the minimal gauge coupling
becomes asymptotically free. Further, we point out that a completely
asymptotically free dynamics for the gauge field is impossible to achieve, as
asymptotically safe quantum gravity necessarily induces nonvanishing
higher-order interactions for the gauge field in the ultraviolet.
