Silicon Valley has found its new boogeyman, and he isn't even in Washington yet.
If you live in Manhattan's 12th Congressional District, your mailbox is probably overflowing with attack ads. Your phone is buzzing with automated text warnings. Turn on the TV, and you're bombarded with slick commercials telling you that Democratic Assemblymember Alex Bores is a threat to the economy.
Why is a local New York politician suddenly the target of a multimillion-dollar carpet-bombing campaign? Because Bores committed the ultimate sin against tech billionaires. He proved that local government can actually regulate artificial intelligence.
Now, the tech industry is fighting back with an unprecedented wave of cash. It's an aggressive strategy designed to send a clear message to any other lawmaker thinking about putting guardrails on AI. If you try to regulate us, we will fund your opponent.
Inside the Multi Million Dollar Proxy War
This isn't a normal primary. It's the first true national battle over who gets to write the rules for the future of tech.
AI-focused Super PACs have already raised more than $100 million during this 2026 election cycle. They've spent roughly $49 million of that cash across dozens of races nationwide. But look closely at where that money is going, and a shocking pattern emerges. Nearly half of all that national spending has focused on just one place: the Democratic primary for NY-12.
Think Big, an affiliate of a powerful bipartisan Super PAC network called Leading the Future, has poured $8.2 million into the primary to defeat Bores. Leading the Future is backed heavily by Trump-aligned tech executives and venture capitalists. They want a friendly federal framework. They want a single, loose national standard rather than a complex patchwork of strict state laws. They claim state-level regulations will choke innovation and hand victory to international competitors like China.
But Bores isn't backing down. He's turned his campaign into a direct referendum on tech power. In his latest campaign video, he puts it bluntly, arguing that this race is the first time voters will decide if we can regulate AI at all.
The Bill That Triggered Silicon Valley
The tech industry's obsession with Bores didn't happen by accident. It started exactly one year ago when Bores sponsored the Raise Act in the New York State Assembly.
The Raise Act was only the second law in American history to force major AI developers to publish public safety plans. It forced companies to show what they were doing to prevent structural biases, deepfakes, and automated chaos. For venture capitalists used to moving fast and breaking things, the law was an unacceptable roadblock.
By August, the retaliation began. The sudden flood of cash transformed Bores from a comfortable frontrunner into a candidate fighting for survival. He is now locked in a tight race with Micah Lasher, another New York assemblymember who has also voiced support for tech guardrails but hasn't drawn the same financial target on his back.
The sheer volume of money has completely altered the local political dynamics. Ironically, by spending millions to destroy Bores, the Super PACs have turned a local state politician into a national symbol of resistance against big tech.
It Is Not Just Manhattan
While Manhattan is the epicentre, the battle lines are stretching across the country. The industry is playing defense on two main fronts: regulatory battles in cities and physical infrastructure rollouts in rural areas.
Super PACs are investing millions in primaries across Utah, Texas, Ohio, Georgia, and Kentucky. In those states, the issue isn't safety legislation. It's the rapid, resource-heavy rollout of rural datacenters. Local communities are pushing back against the massive water and energy demands of these facilities. Tech cash is flowing in to ensure local planners and congressional representatives keep the doors open for infrastructure expansion.
The industry is also hedging its bets by funding friendly voices within the Democratic party. A rival tech-backed PAC called Public First has spent $1.6 million supporting Representative Valerie Foushee, who co-chairs the House Democratic Commission on AI. They also spent $300,000 on ads for fellow co-chair Representative Josh Gottheimer. Two-thirds of the house leadership tasked with creating Democratic AI policy is now funded by a Super PAC heavily backed by Anthropic.
The Crypto Playbook With One Major Flaw
If this strategy feels familiar, that's because tech giants are running an old playbook. During the 2024 elections, crypto companies poured more than $200 million into PACs. They successfully knocked out tech critics, including a $40 million campaign that sank Senator Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
But AI companies are hitting a snag that the crypto bros didn't face. Crypto had a built-in fan base. Millions of everyday retail investors actively wanted the government to stay out of the market so their digital coins would pump.
AI doesn't have that grassroots support. In fact, voters are deeply terrified of it. A recent YouGov poll found that two-thirds of American voters believe the technology is moving way too fast. Only one in five believe its overall economic impact will be positive.
People are looking at tech elites the same way they looked at Wall Street executives in 2008. Whether you are on the political right or the left, there's a growing anger toward an opaque group of tech leaders making massive decisions that don't seem to benefit average working people.
That anxiety is real, especially in New York City. A report from the Brookings Institution recently named New York the most AI-exposed county in America. One-fifth of the city's entire workforce holds jobs that could easily be automated or replaced by algorithms. We aren't talking about factory workers here. We are talking about white-collar professionals: software developers, corporate marketers, and financial analysts.
What Happens Next
Tuesday's primary vote will serve as a massive vibe check for the tech industry's political power. If the millions spent by Think Big manage to defeat Bores, it will send a chilling message to lawmakers in every state capitol: touch tech, and your career is over. If Bores wins, it proves that running against big tech is a winning strategy for local politicians.
If you want to track how this battle unfolds and see where the money goes next, your best move is to monitor the Federal Election Commission (FEC) disclosure reports for Leading the Future and Public First. Keep a close eye on state-level legislative dockets in big economies like California and New York. That's where the real regulatory fights are happening, long before Washington even wakes up to the problem.
