Artificial intelligence industry spending has surged in the 2026 midterms, with nearly half of all funds concentrated on a single Manhattan race: the Democratic primary in New York's 12th congressional district. AI-focused Super Pacs have raised roughly $100m this cycle, spending $44m so far across dozens of races, but the NY-12 contest has become the epicenter of a proxy battle over AI regulation.
Alex Bores at the center of the storm
Assemblymember Alex Bores, a former tech worker turned politician, has become the unlikely focal point. He sponsored the Raise Act, the second US state law requiring major AI developers to publish public safety plans. In response, the Super Pac Leading the Future, an affiliate of Think Big, launched attack ads via TV, text, and mail, pouring $8.2m into the primary. Leading the Future is funded by venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, along with OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife Anna, according to FEC data.
Counter-assault by pro-regulation groups
The anti-Bores blitz triggered a counter-campaign from Super Pacs advocating stronger AI safeguards. You Can Push Back, funded by crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, and Jobs and Democracy, the Democrat-focused arm of the Public First network, have spent $11m to counteract Leading the Future's messaging. Public First was founded by former Democratic congressman Brad Carson, who described the race as “the AI civil war.” Public First's funding includes a $20m contribution from Anthropic, an AI company that markets itself as the industry's conscience.
Bores turns primary into referendum
Bores has framed the primary as a referendum on AI regulation. “This is the first congressional race in the country where the dividing line is: can we regulate AI at all?” he says in a campaign video. Polls show Bores in a tight race with Assemblymember Micah Lasher, who also supports AI guardrails. Carson noted, “They’ve made Alex Bores into a national star.”
Geography and voter concerns
Brookings Institution has named New York City the most “AI-exposed” county, where a fifth of the workforce hold jobs AI could plausibly replace, including software developers and financial analysts. This makes the district a potential “hotbed for some of the AI era's most agitated voters.”
Conflicts of interest and broader spending
While Public First opposes Big Tech's control over AI policy, its industry backing raises conflict-of-interest concerns. Generative AI expert Henry Ajder noted that even cautious executives face pressure to release models quickly. Beyond NY-12, Public First has supported candidates like Representative Celeste Maloy (Utah), who pushed bipartisan deepfake legislation while lobbying for datacenters, and Representative Valerie Foushee, co-chair of the House Democratic Commission on AI, who received $1.6m. Two-thirds of Democrats' AI policy leadership now have Public First backing.
Leading the Future and Public First have also spent heavily in rural datacenter rollout areas, including Utah, Texas, Ohio, Georgia, and Kentucky, despite local backlash. The playbook mirrors crypto's 2024 campaign, where over $200m in PAC money secured victories for crypto-aligned candidates.
AI's political unpopularity
Research suggests AI is politically unpopular. A YouGov poll found two-thirds of US voters believe AI is advancing too quickly, and only one in five see its economic impact as positive, across party lines. Ajder added, “AI companies are increasingly being seen in a similar light to Wall Street elites.”
On Thursday, a new AI-focused Super Pac, Guardrails Alliance, launched explicitly to counter Leading the Future. It is backed by labor unions and former Indeed CEO Chris Hyams, and will not accept corporate money.
