{"id":5076,"date":"2026-06-25T10:37:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5076"},"modified":"2026-06-25T10:37:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:37:29","slug":"how-a-new-york-race-became-the-first-front-in-the-ai-industrys-midterm-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5076","title":{"rendered":"How a New York race became the first front in the AI industry\u2019s midterm war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Competing AI interests poured millions into the Democratic primary, a taste of more spending to come this fall and elections beyond.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Congress can do chaos all by itself. But Trump is willing to help.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n
New York state Assembly member Alex Bores finished second in this week’s congressional primary. (Laura Brett\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 Alex Bores, a largely unknown 35-year-old New York state legislator, catapulted into the national spotlight this spring for his platform advocating tough regulation of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Bores lost his Democratic primary race<\/a> for Congress on Tuesday \u2014 but only after AI interest groups spent tens of millions of dollars on the race. The result, he said, will have reverberations beyond his campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI urge lawmakers and Democrats to take these ideas and put them into action, and I urge them to look at this campaign not as a cautionary tale, but as a blueprint to take into the future,\u201d Bores said in a concession speech Tuesday to supporters, some adorned with tattoos or clutching cans of Modelo beer.<\/p>\n

Politicians across the country are starting to shape their platforms on AI regulation, as voters grow increasingly concerned about the rapidly advancing technology\u2019s potential to displace jobs<\/a> and the impact of energy-hungry data centers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As issues about AI gain in prominence, the sheer volume of funds focused on a candidate whom few outside of Albany knew a year ago made Tuesday\u2019s primary in New York a bellwether for the role AI money will play<\/a> in the midterm elections and beyond.<\/p>\n

Two of the industry\u2019s fiercely competitive PACs<\/a> dropped big chunks of their campaign spending on this single race.<\/p>\n

Leading the Future, a PAC supported by executives from OpenAI and Andreessen Horowitz who favor light-touch regulation, funneled more than $8.1 million to oppose Bores. That represented one-third of their spending so far on the 2026 elections, a Washington Post analysis of campaign finance filings found.<\/p>\n

(The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT.)<\/p>\n

Public First, backed by Anthropic, the maker of Claude and OpenAI\u2019s main rival, spent $13.2 million to boost Bores \u2014 two-thirds of its spend to date.<\/p>\n

Leading the Future and Public First are among at least 17 tech industry-backed super PACs that are pouring millions into ads in this year\u2019s elections, according to research from the Tech Oversight Project<\/a>, which advocates for greater regulation <\/b>of large tech companies.<\/p>\n

The ads range from commercials directly criticizing Bores\u2019s <\/b>stances on AI policies to others that don\u2019t mention the technology at all, according to the Tech Oversight Project\u2019s new library tracking the advertisements. Many ads are funded by groups whose names, such as \u201cJobs and Democracy\u201d or \u201cAmerican Mission,\u201d suggest little connection to AI.<\/p>\n

Josh Vlasto, a co-strategist of Leading the Future, said the group will \u201ccontinue to support policymakers who will work together to pass a national regulatory framework with strong and smart guardrails that protect the safety of kids, users, and communities, ensures America wins the race against China, and creates good jobs for all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

As some of Bores\u2019s detractors took a victory lap, advocates for greater AI regulation saw reason to be hopeful.<\/p>\n

Bores lost by a margin of only four points to Micah Lasher, a veteran of New York politics who had been endorsed by retiring congressman Jerrold Nadler and other established city Democrats.<\/p>

Read more White House, contractors must explain Reflecting Pool actions, Democrats say<\/a><\/p>\n

Political strategists and advocates for greater regulation viewed the result as a sign that the flood of AI money aimed at Bores may have backfired and drawn more attention to his candidacy.<\/p>\n

Leading the Future \u201cinadvertently alerted people to the fact that Bores had a position they agreed with,\u201d said Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist and political strategist who worked in New York for decades. \u201cIt ended up being the opposite of what they intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tusk said more Democrats are likely to adopt anti-AI platforms similar to Bores\u2019s. And some of the groups that funded his candidacy signaled they were prepared to back more candidates willing to take up the mantle of AI regulation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex Bores and the movement for thoughtful AI regulation moved the needle, and we\u2019re only getting started,\u201d said Alex Tourk, a spokesman for Chris Larsen, a billionaire crypto investor who advocates tougher AI regulation and put in millions of dollars to back Bores.<\/p>\n

Lasher, despite the assist he got from OpenAI and its allies, signaled that he would continue to call for AI regulation in the general election. His campaign platform included policy proposals to put \u201csafeguards on AI,<\/a>\u201d and Lasher told supporters<\/a> Tuesday night that he wouldn\u2019t be swayed by industry interest groups.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have some news for the two big AI companies who\u2019ve taken such an unusual interest in who won this congressional seat: I won\u2019t be taking my cues from either of you when it comes to protecting our kids, our jobs, our environment,\u201d Lasher said.<\/p>\n

The tidal wave of ads had ripple effects beyond the election.<\/p>\n

This week, a union representing employees at the New York Daily News complained about pro-Bores advertisements that were paid for by a Public First fund and were wrapped around the newspaper\u2019s front page over several days.<\/p>\n

Michael Sheridan, unit chair of the Daily News union, said that staff have been \u201cdisgusted\u201d about what he and his colleagues believed were ads that made it appear as though the newspaper had endorsed Bores.<\/p>\n

Daily News executives and a spokesperson for the paper\u2019s owner, investment firm Alden Global Capital, didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

AI money is flooding into politics as the Trump administration increasingly reevaluates the hands-off approach that it has so far largely taken to the AI industry. Backers of Leading the Future, including Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, have championed the Trump administration\u2019s moves to roll back Biden-era AI rules.<\/p>\n

The PAC so far is backing candidates from both parties. With the exception of the Bores race, it has spent nearly equal amounts supporting Democrats and Republicans in elections.<\/p>\n

In many races, Leading the Future has supported the same candidates as Trump. It backed Andy Barr in a race for a Senate seat in Kentucky, for example, just days after he received the president\u2019s endorsement.<\/p>\n

The group has also spent more than $3 million on Democratic incumbents in safe races, which the Tech Oversight Project criticized as a means to curry favor with existing members of Congress. American Mission \u2014 a group backed by Leading the Future \u2014 has also spent $500,000 to unseat Rep. Don Davis (D-North Carolina), a member of the Congressional Black Caucus whose seat is vulnerable following Republican-led redistricting.<\/p>

Read more Continuing a sporting trend, the International Tennis Federation is now World Tennis<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Competing AI interests poured millions into the Democratic primary, a taste of more spending to come this fall and elections beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nHow a New York race became the first front in the AI industry\u2019s midterm war - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5076\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How a New York race became the first front in the AI industry\u2019s midterm war - 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JUNE 23: State Assembly member, Alex Bores (D-NY) gives a speech to supporters at his watch party at The Freehand Hotel after conceding the congressional race to Micah Lasher who will replace Rep Jerry Nadler (D-NY) in NY's 12th Congressional District on June 23, 2026 in New York City. 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