AI-aligned super PACs spent $27.83 million trying to swing a single House primary in Manhattan's 12th Congressional District, turning a low-profile open-seat race into the first full-scale electoral proxy war over AI regulation. The target is state assemblyman Alex Bores, who co-sponsored the first AI safety law passed in any US state and has since become the focal point of a fight between Anthropic-aligned PACs backing him and a $100 million OpenAI-aligned PAC trying to defeat him. Polls close tonight.
The spending totals dwarf what's normal for a House primary. Pro-Bores PACs funded by tech money have spent a combined $19.4 million, according to Transformer — more than the Bores campaign itself raised across the entire cycle. Leading the Future, the $100 million anti-regulation AI super PAC, deployed $8.15 million through its Think Big arm specifically to defeat him.
Three of the pro-Bores vehicles trace back to Anthropic or its orbit. Dream NYC received an initial large donation from a single Anthropic employee. The Jobs and Democracy super PAC is funded by Public First Action, a nonprofit that received a $20 million donation from Anthropic itself. A fourth pro-Bores group, You Can Push Back, was created by Ripple cofounder Chris Larsen.
Key facts
- 01AI-aligned super PACs spent $27.83M trying to shape the NY-12 House primary, more than the Bores campaign's entire budget.
- 02Anthropic donated $20M to Public First Action, which funds the pro-Bores Jobs and Democracy super PAC.
- 03Leading the Future, a $100M anti-regulation AI super PAC, spent $8.15M through its Think Big arm to defeat Bores.
- 04Pro-Bores PACs backed by tech money spent a combined $19.4M, per Transformer's tally.
- 05Guardrails Alliance, a union-backed counterweight PAC, pledged $250,000 in late pro-Bores advertising.
Politico reported earlier this month that it had identified at least eight new TikTok and Instagram accounts posting coordinated pro-Bores content, with evidence tying them to You Can Push Back. The original tip came from rival candidate Jack Schlossberg, who posted on X that he believed he was being astroturfed. You Can Push Back declined to comment to Politico.
Bores and his campaign have repeatedly said AI safety was never meant to be the center of his platform — the super PACs imposed that label on him. By federal law, his campaign cannot coordinate with any of the outside groups, and aides have avoided publicly discussing the Anthropic-aligned PACs fighting over him.
A fourth super PAC has now entered the race specifically to call out the corporate spending. Guardrails Alliance, launched last week and made up primarily of unions and rank-and-file tech workers, pledged $250,000 in late pro-Bores advertising. Cofounder Shaunna Thomas told The New York Times the group exists as a counterweight to the feuding billionaires.
The race is genuinely competitive. The most recent independent polling, from Emerson College on May 21st, showed Bores statistically tied with fellow assemblyman Micah Lasher, who is backed by Michael Bloomberg's super PAC. Former Republican George Conway is also running, and Jack Schlossberg is leaning on the Kennedy network. Mayor Zohran Mamdani declined to endorse, removing one of the usual New York political variables.
Voters in the district may not be casting ballots on AI policy at all. The New Yorker canvassed the district last week and found residents focused on affordability, Israel, and the direction of the Democratic Party. Whoever wins the primary is effectively the November winner — NY-12 covers solidly blue Manhattan turf.
“I'm gonna be honest with you, [Bores] wasn't exactly a well-known quantity prior to becoming a target of these AI companies.”— Liz Smith, New York Democratic strategist
What the spending guarantees is name recognition. Bores entered the cycle as a state legislator most New Yorkers had never heard of. Tens of millions of dollars of attack and defense advertising later, he is the candidate whose position on AI is most legible to voters — whether he wanted that framing or not.
The result will be read as a market signal regardless of margin. A Bores win validates the thesis that AI-safety positioning can be a campaign asset heading into the 2026 midterms, and gives Anthropic's political operation an early scalp against OpenAI-aligned spending. A Bores loss lets Leading the Future argue its $100 million war chest can punish any candidate who backs AI regulation, which is the more strategically important outcome for the broader industry fight. Either way, the $27.83 million spent on one Manhattan primary establishes the new floor for what AI policy fights will cost from here.
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