AI political spending set to shape U.S. midterm races

Traders Union
All News
Financial News
AI political spending in midterms

Highlights

Leading the Future Super Pac, backed by major Trump donors, spends $8 million opposing Alex Bores in New York’s 12th congressional district Democratic primary focused on AI regulation.
Pro-regulation groups, including some supported by Anthropic, contribute about $18 million to Bores, who champions the RAISE Act, but he narrowly loses to Micah Lasher, supported by Michael Bloomberg-linked interests.
AI policy advocacy groups on both sides are ramping up financial involvement ahead of the U.S. midterms and 2028 presidential race, signaling escalation in AI regulatory funding battles.

New York primary spotlights AI funding battle

As first reported by Financial Times, the Democratic primary in New York City’s 12th congressional district becomes a proxy fight over artificial intelligence regulation after state assembly member Alex Bores is targeted by an $8 million campaign from Leading the Future, a Super Pac backed by wealthy Trump donors.

Bores, a former Palantir employee, also receives about $18 million from groups that support tighter AI regulation, including some backed by Anthropic, which favors stricter curbs on the technology than rivals such as OpenAI. He narrowly loses to Micah Lasher, whose campaign benefits from support linked to former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.

After the election, Bores says that some of the most powerful people on the planet wanted to make an example of the race. The contest draws attention both to the growing role of AI as a campaign issue and to the willingness of major AI interests to finance political committees that support light-touch regulation.

Regulatory conflict widens ahead of midterms

Bores is a sponsor of the RAISE Act in the New York state assembly, a law enacted by Governor Kathy Hochul in December last year and designed to set what supporters call a nation-leading standard for AI transparency and safety.

A week before Hochul signs the measure, President Donald Trump issues executive order 14365, which seeks to remove barriers to U.S. AI leadership, including state-level rules the administration considers too burdensome. That policy clash places Bores directly in the sights of Leading the Future, whose backers include Andreessen Horowitz co-founders, OpenAI president Greg Brockman and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.

The group says it promotes a positive, forward-looking agenda for AI and aims to identify and develop pro-AI candidates across the country. Similar organizations are likely to play a larger financial role in November and in the 2028 presidential race, while rival groups backing stricter safeguards, including Guardrails Alliance and You Can Push Back, are also expected to spend heavily as concern over AI’s impact on jobs grows.

Our earlier article on the recent volatility and sell-off in AI-linked technology shares explained how strong U.S. growth and expectations of higher real rates began to weigh on equity performance, particularly in tech. We noted that heavy AI infrastructure spending was supporting economic activity while pressuring the biggest spenders’ stocks, contributing to a rotation away from mega-cap tech leadership and adding uncertainty around the AI trade.

This material may contain third-party opinions, none of the data and information on this webpage constitutes investment advice according to our Disclaimer. While we adhere to strict Editorial Integrity, this post may contain references to products from our partners.