Recent advertisements targeting New York Assembly Member Alex Bores have highlighted his past employment with Palantir, an AI firm implicated in the controversial operations and high-volume deportation efforts of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These ads specifically accuse Bores of earning hundreds of thousands of dollars by developing technology for ICE, thereby "powering their deportations."
However, Bores contends that this narrative is incomplete. In a recent interview on TechCrunch's Equity podcast, he clarified, “I quit Palantir specifically over its work with ICE in 2019.”
Currently, Bores is campaigning for New York’s 12th congressional district, a race where his efforts are being challenged by external groups funded by influential Big Tech billionaires.
The campaign ads are bankrolled by a super PAC named Leading the Future, which ironically counts Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale among its key supporters. Other significant backers include OpenAI President Greg Brockman, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, AI search startup Perplexity, and various other Silicon Valley heavyweights. This PAC has amassed an impressive $125 million, which it uses to oppose candidates in state elections who propose AI legislation and to support those advocating for a minimal or non-existent regulatory approach to AI.
Bores asserts that the PAC has “committed to spending at least $10 million against me…because they know I am their biggest threat in their quest for unbridled control over the American worker, over our kids’ minds, climate and our utility bills.” He added, “They’re targeting me to make an example of me.”
He believes his extensive background in technology, including his tenure at Palantir and various startups, is precisely why Leading the Future has singled him out as its initial target.
“I actually deeply understand the technology and I can’t be dismissed as this person just doesn’t understand it,” Bores stated, further noting that if elected, he would be only the second Democrat in Congress holding a computer science degree.
Bores first drew the ire of Silicon Valley after championing the RAISE Act, an AI transparency bill that became law in December. This legislation mandates that large AI laboratories—specifically those generating over $500 million in revenue—must establish and adhere to a publicly accessible safety plan, and report any catastrophic safety incidents.
This type of legislation is often considered "light-touch" within the industry, emphasizing disclosure and strategic planning rather than proactive governmental oversight, a regulatory framework many other sectors might welcome.
Bores suggests that Leading the Future is fundamentally opposed to any state-level AI regulation, only endorsing federal oversight as the PAC itself has indicated. Over the past year, states have actively pushed back against industry pressure to preserve their authority to regulate AI in the absence of a federal framework. In December, former President Trump issued an executive order instructing federal agencies to challenge what he deemed “onerous” state AI laws, such as Bores’s RAISE Act.
Bores highlighted his campaign’s proposed national AI governance blueprint, which encompasses eight critical areas and 43 policy recommendations, arguing that anyone serious about federal AI regulation should support his efforts. He has also introduced legislation designed to compel companies to reveal the contents of their training data and to implement metadata standards that would facilitate the traceability of synthetic content.
Leading the Future is not the sole Silicon Valley-backed PAC influencing midterm elections. Meta has allocated $65 million to two super PACs—the American Technology Excellence Project and Mobilizing Economic Transformation Across (Meta) California—to bolster state-level candidates who are favorable to the AI and tech industries. Furthermore, AI companies, industry associations, and top executives collectively contributed at least $83 million to federal campaigns and committees in 2025.
Bores characterized these actions, stating, “This is not a ‘We want to have a piece of the conversation.’” He continued, “This is: ‘We want to intimidate elected officials and browbeat anyone who doesn’t agree with us.”
Elaborating on the scale of spending, Bores noted, “The average assembly race in New York raises maybe $100,000 total, maybe less.” He emphasized the disparity, saying, “For one company (Meta) to be spending $65 million on state races, let alone everything they’re doing in Congress — I think it’s tough for people to understand how much that is above the norm.”
Conversely, Bores has secured support from Public First Action, an Anthropic-backed PAC, which is spending $450,000 on his campaign. Public First Action also identifies as pro-AI but prioritizes transparency, safety, and public oversight.
Bores describes Leading the Future as representing “an extremely small minority of voices” who perceive any regulation as a hindrance to AI progress and advocate for an unconstrained approach, wanting to “let it rip.” Interestingly, Bores’s support base includes tech workers from the very companies whose leaders are actively trying to undermine his campaign, reflecting a broader trend of grassroots organizing within tech firms concerning the deployment and beneficiaries of AI.
On the other extreme, Bores identifies a minority who “want to pretend AI never existed and put the genie back in the bottle and burn all the data centers.”
He believes that most Americans occupy a middle ground: they utilize AI and acknowledge its potential but are simultaneously concerned by its rapid advancement.
These individuals, Bores concluded, “wonder if the government is up to the task of ensuring we have a future that benefits the many instead of the few.”
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