The $27 million Al proxy war over Alex Bores ends in a draw
TL;DR
Alex Bores narrowly lost the NY-12 Democratic primary to Micah Lasher, 35.0 percent to 39.1 percent in the latest AP count. Bores had co-authored the RAISE Act, New York's law adding safety requirements for frontier AI companies. That made him a target for national AI lobby money. Pro-Bores PACs with Anthropic ties spent $19.26 million. Leading the Future, funded by executives tied to OpenAI, Palantir and a16z, spent $8.15 million.
Nauti's Take
This was not a clean win for the AI lobby. It was an expensive reality check.
$27 million buys attention, not an automatic anti-regulation majority. For AI builders, politics is now part of product risk, even when the code is already shipped.
Briefingshow
The result shows AI regulation is becoming an election issue, but it is not yet enough to decide races on its own. Tech-linked groups poured huge money into one local primary, while Lasher still won with New York establishment support and his own RAISE Act credentials. For the pro-regulation side, the lesson cuts both ways: attacks can damage candidates, but they can also make them harder to ignore.
Sources