Tech Industry Spends Millions Against AI-Savvy Candidate in New York Race

A political group called Leading the Future, backed by major tech executives and companies like OpenAI and Palantir, has spent about $2.4 million on attack ads targeting Alex Bores. Bores is a New York state politician running for Congress, and he's notable for writing some of the first laws regulating artificial intelligence. The spending shows that the tech industry is increasingly willing to use its financial power to influence elections against candidates who want to regulate AI.

The group running the attacks is funded by well-known tech figures including Marc Andreessen and Greg Brockman, a co-founder of OpenAI. They've been running negative ads against Bores since December 2025, long before Bores started spending money on his own campaign ads in May.

Who Is Alex Bores?

Bores has an unusual background for a politician. He studied computer science at two top universities — Cornell and Georgia Tech — and worked as a data scientist before entering politics. Before that, he worked for Palantir, a data analysis company.

His earlier jobs involved helping prosecutors investigate violent crime and building software that helped 50,000 families get COVID relief payments from the government. In 2022, he was elected to the New York State Assembly, where he wrote regulations about artificial intelligence. This makes him one of the few lawmakers with both technical knowledge and hands-on experience writing tech rules.

That background is exactly why the tech industry seems focused on stopping him. A candidate with both engineering expertise and regulatory experience could shape how AI is governed at the federal level.

The Attack Ads and Bores' Response

One attack ad, which cost $120,000 to run in December, claimed Bores had made hundreds of thousands of dollars working on technology for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Bores denied this, sending a legal letter saying he never worked on that contract and had specifically avoided immigration-related work.

On the flip side, other parts of the tech industry are backing Bores financially. Tech billionaire Chris Larsen and employees of the AI company Anthropic have contributed about $4.59 million to support him. This creates an odd situation: while some tech companies attack Bores, other tech figures and companies support him.

The Money Trail

Bores has raised about $2.86 million for his campaign, and he has turned down money from corporate political groups (called PACs). But there's an interesting detail: only 12% of his donations come from the district he wants to represent. More money has come from Berkeley, California than from Manhattan itself, and only 25% of his donors live anywhere in New York state.

Leading the Future has said it plans to spend $100 million across multiple election races. The fact that they've focused so much money on a single state assembly member's race for Congress suggests they see his potential to shape AI policy as a major threat to their interests.

The Broader Picture

The broader context here matters. We've seen this pattern before. When an industry faces regulatory pressure, companies often spend money to influence elections. The pharmaceutical industry does this with healthcare reformers. Banks did it with candidates who wanted to regulate the financial system. What's different with AI is how quickly it's happening and how much money is being spent against someone with relatively limited power so far — Bores is still just a state-level politician, not a federal one yet.

The timing of the ads is worth noting. By starting attacks months before Bores spent money on his own campaign, the tech industry was trying to shape public opinion about him before he could tell his own story. This is a standard political tactic, but the speed and scale here suggest the industry views AI regulation as increasingly important.

The primary election is scheduled for June 23rd, and Bores is currently in a close race with another state assemblyman named Micah Lasher. The race also includes Jack Schlossberg (grandson of President John F. Kennedy) and George Conway (an author and lawyer), among others.

What Happens Next

The outcome of this race will likely send a signal to the tech industry about how effective their political spending can be. If Bores wins despite the attacks, tech companies may rethink how they approach politics. If he loses, it may embolden them to spend similar amounts in other races involving candidates who support regulation.

The larger question is about governance. As artificial intelligence becomes more important in people's daily lives — in healthcare, hiring, criminal justice — the question of who writes the rules and how those rules get written matters. Elections like this one, where different factions of the tech world are backing different candidates, may ultimately determine what those rules look like.