The $27 million Al proxy war over Alex Bores ends in a draw
Get the Tech newsletter
Daily tech — startups, AI labs, chips, the launches that shape the next decade. Free.
- Alex Bores lost the NY-12 Democratic primary to Micah Lasher 35% to 39.1% after FEC filings showed a combined $27.41 million in AI-industry super PAC spending on the race.
- Leading the Future, a $100 million pro-deregulation super PAC backed by OpenAI, Palantir, and Andreessen Horowitz executives, spent $8.15 million opposing Bores, while four pro-Bores super PACs spent $19.26 million in support.
- Anthropic routed $20 million through Public First to back Bores, whose RAISE Act had imposed guardrails on frontier AI companies and drawn the ire of OpenAI-aligned groups.
- Micah Lasher, viewed as the protégé of retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler and backed by a Michael Bloomberg-affiliated super PAC, also co-sponsored the RAISE Act — undercutting the narrative that the primary was a clean pro- vs. anti-AI-regulation contest.
- Jack Schlossberg, grandson of President Kennedy, finished third with 10.8%, while George Conway placed fifth with just 7.1%, trailing even Nina Schwalbe.
- AI super PACs have spent a combined $50.1 million across 19 states this cycle per Transformer's tracker, with Texas primaries drawing $4.6 million across seven races.
- Bores framed the loss as evidence that voters are "ready to push back" against "AI oligarchs," even though Lasher's policy record on AI was nearly identical to his own.
Why it matters: Anthropic's bet that flooding a race with anti-OpenAI cash could install a pro-regulation champion collapsed under the weight of local Manhattan politics: Lasher won with Bloomberg and Nadler backing, and he co-sponsored Bores's own RAISE Act. The result — the most expensive primary in the cycle at $27.41 million — suggests that AI-industry super PACs can't yet override entrenched local networks, even when both sides treat a single race as a national bellwether.
Ask SkimNews
