Tech-friendly PACs are targeting New York State Congressman Alex Bores in the Democratic primary, alleging his involvement with the discredited 2022 Sam Bankman-Fried donor network.
These attacks are part of a broader campaign by the AI industry to deter candidates XEM unfriendly to the field.
Why are major tech companies targeting Bores?
Think Big PAC, an affiliate of Leading the Future – a super PAC network backed by the AI industry – has reportedly distributed leaflets to voters in New York's 12th congressional district.
These leaflets allege that Bores' campaign received support from associates of Bankman-Fried – the founder of FTX, who was convicted of fraud and money laundering in 2023.
Think Big PAC's involvement signals a new level of tension in the ongoing attack campaign against Bores. Previously, the group aired ads targeting Bores related to his past work at the data analytics company Palantir – notably, one of Palantir's co-founders is also a backer of the group.
Bores sent a letter demanding that the group immediately stop the advertisement, claiming they had posted false and defamatory information.
This tactic was carefully calculated in the extremely Democratic-leaning Manhattan area , where associating a candidate with a convicted fraud offender carries clear political risks.
Nationwide, this race is XEM as a test of how aggressively tech giants will target those who advocate for AI control .
The main reason Bores is under attack is because of his stance on AI. The RAISE Act, which he spearheaded and signed into law last year, requires AI companies to conduct safety checks on their models and publicly disclose the results.
This very profile made him the primary target of Leading the Future – a Super PAC backed by the AI industry and behind this campaign.
AI applies crypto market strategies.
Leading the Future announced last November that Bores would be their first target. The group's backers include OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, Andreessen Horowitz , and they have $70 million in the bank, according to Politico .
The group's leaders also stated they would pursue any campaign that yielded the best results. The attack involving Bankman-Fried is a prime example of this strategy.
This strategy is similar to what the crypto industry successfully implemented in 2024, when Fairshake, a cryptocurrency-focused Super PAC , aggressively spent money attacking skeptics of digital assets. This effort is believed to have cost Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown his seat after more than three decades as a federal senator. Leading the Future now shares the same leadership as this PAC.
Bankman-Fried was one of America's largest political donors to the 2022 election, pouring money into candidates with tech-friendly views. Many figures currently campaigning for the AI industry were also active in similar funding circles at that time.
The use of the Bankman-Fried name in the attack stems from this context. Leading the Future has also publicly stated that their target is not just NY-12 but extends to state legislatures across the United States, which are closely monitoring developments.
