Tech-backed political committees flooded a New York congressional race with $17 million, turning a local primary into a proxy war over AI regulation.
Two political action committees backed by rival AI labs have spent $17 million on a single Democratic primary in New York's 12th congressional district. Leading the Future, funded by Andreessen Horowitz and the co-founders of OpenAI and Palantir, directed $7 million against two-term Assemblymember Alex Bores. Public First Action, supported by Anthropic, countered with $10 million in his favor. The race concludes Tuesday.
Bores, a former Palantir employee, became the target after co-sponsoring the RAISE Act, which Governor Kathy Hochul signed in December 2025. The law requires the largest frontier AI developers — OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta among them — to publish annual risk-assessment frameworks. His own staff describes the bill as a first step toward robust oversight, yet it ranks among the strongest state-level AI regulations in the country.
The spending dwarfs typical House primary expenditures and has baffled observers. Some see an intra-industry dispute over regulatory approach; others view it as a warning shot to any lawmaker who crosses the sector. Leading the Future's backers include OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, while Anthropic's support for Public First Action puts the two best-funded AI labs on opposite sides of the same contest.
New York's RAISE Act mirrors California's Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, signed earlier in 2025. Both laws apply only to the largest model developers and mandate public disclosure of safety protocols. The California measure passed with industry engagement; the New York version drew fierce opposition only after enactment, when the primary field solidified around Bores.
The money has transformed a low-profile race into a referendum on tech influence in politics. Bores has raised roughly $1.2 million of his own, a fraction of the outside spending. Polls show him competitive against former federal prosecutor Dan Goldman and former Obama aide Jerry Nadler, but the deluge of negative mailers and digital ads funded by Leading the Future has saturated the district.
The market reaction
This primary may establish a playbook for 2026 and beyond. If PACs can spend eight-figure sums to punish a single state legislator for a first-step bill, the cost of AI regulation rises sharply for any elected official. The split between OpenAI and Anthropic backers also suggests the industry has not coalesced around a single regulatory strategy — some firms prefer preemption, others see advantage in shaping early rules.
Voters head to the polls Tuesday with the outcome uncertain. The real test comes after: whether other legislatures advance similar bills, and whether the $17 million price tag becomes the new floor for AI political engagement.
