$26.3 million. That is how much AdImpact Politics counted in ad spending on the Democratic primary in New York’s 12th Congressional District, making it the second most expensive House primary on record, according to Fox News. Only the Kentucky 4th District race between Thomas Massie and Ed Gallrein, at $33.2 million, cost more.
State Assemblymember Micah Lasher won it. He took 39% to 35% for fellow Assemblymember Alex Bores in the contest to replace longtime Rep. Jerry Nadler. The district covers Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Upper West Side and Midtown.
A fight over who regulates AI
The money tracked a split inside the tech industry. The Guardian reported that AI-focused super PACs have raised more than $100 million this cycle and spent $49 million so far across dozens of House races. Half of that landed on NY-12, and much of it targeted Bores, a former Palantir data scientist with a master’s degree in computer science.
It began a year ago, when Bores sponsored the Raise Act, the second state law in the country requiring major AI developers to publish public safety plans. By August his campaign was facing attack ads on TV, by text and in the mail. Think Big, an affiliate of the network Leading the Future, put $8.2 million into the primary against him. Fox, citing The Hill, put the group’s spending at more than $8 million. Leading the Future’s $75 million war chest comes from four donors, according to FEC data: venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna. The group favors a federal framework for regulating AI over a patchwork of state laws. It did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
Super PACs favoring stronger safeguards pushed back. They include You Can Push Back, funded by crypto billionaire Chris Larsen, and Jobs and Democracy, a subsidiary of the Public First network founded by former Oklahoma Rep. Brad Carson. Anthropic has announced a $20 million contribution to Public First, and Carson said the network has raised another $45 million from various industries. The Hill reported that AI safety groups spent more than $20 million backing Bores. Together, tech-funded PACs spent nearly $16 million in NY-12 on ads casting Bores as “standing up to Big Tech.” Carson called the race “the AI civil war.”
The candidate numbers
AdImpact figures show $9.3 million spent supporting Bores and $3.6 million in negative ads against him, the largest share of attack spending in the race. Lasher drew $8.6 million in support and $1.6 million in attack ads. Michael Bloomberg also put millions of his own money behind Lasher, according to FEC documents. Lasher too campaigned for AI guardrails and for curbing big tech’s influence.
Bores framed the race as a referendum. “This is the first congressional race in the country where the dividing line is: can we regulate AI at all?” he said in a campaign video.
The industry money may have a political cost. A YouGov poll found two-thirds of U.S. voters think AI is advancing too quickly, and only one in five expect its economic impact to be positive overall.
Sources
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Sources
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