Artificial Intelligence Will Be On The Ballot In 2026 As Tech Moguls See The Midterms As Path To Power

WASHINGTON DC – As politicians in both parties raise concerns about the impacts of AI, political groups backed by tech investors and Meta plan to intervene in 2026 races.

“Alex Bores. Wrong on AI. Wrong for Congress,” warned an attack ad launched last week in New York. The Democratic contender for a Manhattan House seat fired back in an online video, filmed as he walked down a city street, wrote the Washington Post.

The super PACs from tech figures and Meta aim to wrest control of the narrative around AI, just as politicians in both parties have started warning that the industry is moving too fast.

Pro-AI Super PACs Building Election War Chest

The largest of the pro-AI super PACs, Leading the Future, has a war chest of more than $100 million from prominent investors and executives. It has an affiliated nonprofit that launched a $10 million campaign last month to pressure Congress to pass legislation that would unleash American AI companies to innovate faster and challenge China.

The Silicon Valley push hopes to dramatically extend the gains the tech industry has reaped from the second term of President Donald Trump. He has struck down AI restrictions introduced by his predecessor Joe Biden and last week signed an executive order threatening to sue states that pass laws on AI. State legislators introduced more than 1,000 bills to regulate AI in 2025, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

By knocking down candidates such as Bores, who favor regulations, and boosting industry sympathizers, the tech-backed groups could signal to incumbents and candidates nationwide that opposing the tech industry can jeopardize their electoral chances.

“Bores just happened to be first, but he’s not the last, and he’s certainly not the only,” said Josh Vlasto, co-head of Leading the Future, the bipartisan super PAC behind the attack ad. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the AI bill Bores sponsored into law Friday afternoon.

Leading The Future To Support And Oppose AI Candidates

Leading the Future plans to support and oppose candidates in congressional and state elections next year. It will also fund rapid response operations against voices in the industry pushing for more oversight. The super PAC is funded by tech elites, including the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, whose co-founder Marc Andreessen is a Trump adviser and supporter; Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, a friend to Vice President JD Vance; and the president of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, Greg Brockman, and his wife.

The strategy aims to replicate the success of the cryptocurrency industry, which used a super PAC to clear a path for Congress this summer to boost the sector’s fortunes with the passage of the Genius Act.

The crypto industry’s reputation had previously plummeted after fraud convictions at crypto exchange FTX in 2023. To fix it, investors and companies backed a super PAC called Fairshake that aggressively challenged candidates who didn’t back its agenda. The group helped defeat left-leaning Democrats, spending $10 million to defeat Rep. Katie Porter in her Senate campaign in California and $40 million to unseat then-Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio.

Push Back On AI Data Centers

Research Center found in a June survey. As AI usage continues to grow, more people are being warned by chief executives that AI will disrupt their jobs, seeing power-hungry data centers spring up in their towns or hearing claims that chatbots can harm mental health.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle are attempting to channel AI angst into a campaign platform, pitching voters on safeguarding children from chatbots or opposing new data centers.

Republican division over the AI industry in the Senate in July killed a bid, backed by some of Trump’s tech allies, to pass a 10-year federal moratorium on state AI laws.

The president’s more recent moves to block state AI regulation triggered pushback from major Republican figures including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and conservative commentator Stephen K. Bannon, who complained that the president’s coziness with tech figures risked alienating his base amid voter frustration with rising energy bills.

Read the rest of the story at the Washington Post.

About the Author: Mike Brennan

Founder of Michigan News Network, and serves as CEO, as well as Editor & Publisher of MITECHNEWS.COM. Brennan has worked since 1980 as a technology writer at newspapers in New York, NY, San Jose, CA., Seattle, WA., Memphis, TN., Detroit, MI., and London, England. He co-founded and served as managing editor of Pacific Rim News Service (SEATTLE), which developed a network of more than 100 freelance journalists in 17 Asia-Pacific countries.

Artificial Intelligence Will Be On The Ballot In 2026 As Tech Moguls See The Midterms As Path To Power