How a New York race became the first front in the AI industry's midterm war

NEW YORK - 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.

Bores lost his Democratic primary race for Congress on Tuesday - 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.

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"I 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," Bores said in a concession speech Tuesday to supporters, some adorned with tattoos or clutching cans of Modelo beer.

Politicians across the country are starting to shape their platforms on AI regulation, as voters grow increasingly concerned about the rapidly advancing technology's potential to displace jobs and the impact of energy-hungry data centers.

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's primary in New York a bellwether for the role AI money will play in the midterm elections and beyond.

Two of the industry's fiercely competitive PACs dropped big chunks of their campaign spending on this single race.

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.

(The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT.)

Public First, backed by Anthropic, the maker of Claude and OpenAI's main rival, spent $13.2 million to boost Bores - two-thirds of its spend to date.

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's elections, according to research from the Tech Oversight Project, which advocates for greater regulation of large tech companies.

The ads range from commercials directly criticizing Bores's stances on AI policies to others that don't mention the technology at all, according to the Tech Oversight Project's new library tracking the advertisements. Many ads are funded by groups whose names, such as "Jobs and Democracy" or "American Mission," suggest little connection to AI.

Josh Vlasto, a co-strategist of Leading the Future, said the group will "continue 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."

As some of Bores's detractors took a victory lap, advocates for greater AI regulation saw reason to be hopeful.

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 Jerry Nadler and other established city Democrats.

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.

Leading the Future "inadvertently alerted people to the fact that Bores had a position they agreed with," said Bradley Tusk, a venture capitalist and political strategist who worked in New York for decades. "It ended up being the opposite of what they intended."

Tusk said more Democrats are likely to adopt anti-AI platforms similar to Bores's. 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.

"Alex Bores and the movement for thoughtful AI regulation moved the needle, and we're only getting started," 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.

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 "safeguards on AI," and Lasher told supporters Tuesday night that he wouldn't be swayed by industry interest groups.

"I have some news for the two big AI companies who've taken such an unusual interest in who won this congressional seat: I won't be taking my cues from either of you when it comes to protecting our kids, our jobs, our environment," Lasher said.

The tidal wave of ads had ripple effects beyond the election.

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's front page over several days.

Michael Sheridan, unit chair of the Daily News union, said that staff have been "disgusted" about what he and his colleagues believed were ads that made it appear as though the newspaper had endorsed Bores.

Daily News executives and a spokesperson for the paper's owner, investment firm Alden Global Capital, didn't respond to requests for comment.

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's moves to roll back Biden-era AI rules.

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.

In many races, Leading the Future has supported the same candidates as President Donald Trump. It backed Andy Barr in a race for a Senate seat in Kentucky, for example, just days after he received the president's endorsement.

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 - a group backed by Leading the Future - 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. American Mission made the contribution to Davis's GOP challenger ahead of the Republican primary.

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