Two industry-backed PACs, American Mission and Building the Future, collectively spent $4.8 million backing South Carolina Senate candidate Darline Graham, who lost. American Mission, the Republican spending arm of Leading the Future (LTF), which is backed by OpenAI president Greg Brockman and VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, also spent more than $500,000 each on losing House candidates Aaron Flint of Montana and Laurie Buckhout of North Carolina. LTF's Democratic spending arm, Think Big, had better luck supporting Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who won reelection.
On the pro-regulation side, Guardrails Alliance spent more than $1 million each opposing two candidates who lost: California Rep. Jimmy Gomez and Montana's Aaron Flint. The group also spent $300,000 supporting Angela Gonzales-Torres, who defeated Gomez. Another group, Public First, which is backed by Anthropic, supported several Republicans who lost through its affiliated PAC but saw more success with Democratic candidates. It contributed $3 million to a PAC supporting California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who was leading his race at the time of publication.
The impact of AI-related spending is difficult to isolate from the broader Democratic wave that swept the elections. Elon Musk reportedly poured half a billion dollars into supporting Republicans, many of whose candidates also lost.
Charlie Blaettler, political director of Guardrails Alliance, offered a different theory for why LTF spent comparatively little in the general election: he said the group did not want its money to become an issue in the elections. “AIPAC became the story in that race,” he said, pointing to the Michigan Senate primary in which the pro-Israel lobbying group spent close to $30 million backing Democratic candidate Haley Stevens, who conceded the primary to Abdul El-Sayed. “We know people hate AI billionaires,” Blaettler added. He said the goal of his group is to “make AI money politically toxic.”
LTF told TechCrunch it considers primaries a more effective use of funds because spending there can build name recognition and help candidates set AI policy agendas. It spent $27.38 million in the primaries, including $8 million to oppose New York Assembly member Alex Bores, who lost his congressional bid in June. The group said it plans to continue spending in the 2028 elections.
At the heart of the fight is whether Congress should establish a national AI framework that overrides state laws, or whether states maintain their own ability to impose safeguards. LTF favours a single national framework, while Guardrails Alliance wants to keep opposing candidates backed by the industry.