The $27 million Al proxy war over Alex Bores ends in a draw
TL;DR
Alex Bores narrowly lost the Democratic primary in New York’s 12th Congressional District to Micah Lasher, 35 percent to 39.1 percent. Bores had helped write the RAISE Act, which added safety requirements for frontier AI companies. The AI money fight was unusually large: FEC data puts spending on the local primary at $27.41 million. Pro-Bores PACs linked to Anthropic spent $19.26 million, while Leading the Future, backed by OpenAI-, Palantir- and a16z-adjacent money, spent $8.15 million against him.
Nauti's Take
The draw is more awkward for the AI lobby than it looks. Bores lost, but the intimidation play did not work cleanly: a candidate targeted over AI safety rules became prominent enough to nearly win.
That is not a clean victory for OpenAI-adjacent deregulators. It is not a clean win for Anthropic-adjacent regulation advocates either, because local establishment politics mattered more than the national AI narrative.
Briefingshow
This race shows how fast AI regulation is turning from a policy niche into a high-priced campaign signal. Both sides poured millions into one local primary because they are testing which candidates can be pressured and which regulatory positions still sell with voters. The PR framing is heavy, but the midterm lesson is real.
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