Political groups supporting and opposing the AI industry spent millions influencing the midterms to shape future regulations. The outcome was mixed, with some heavily backed candidates losing.
On the industry side, two AI-focused PACs, American Mission and Building the Future, combined to spend $4.8 million backing South Carolina Senate candidate Darlene Graham, who lost. American Mission is the Republican arm of Leading the Future (LTF), a group backed by OpenAI President Greg Brockman and Andreessen Horowitz.
American Mission also spent over $500,000 each supporting Republican House candidates Aaron Flint in Montana and Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina, both of whom lost. Conversely, LTF's Democratic arm, Think Big, saw success backing Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who won reelection.
Groups advocating for stronger AI safeguards also saw mixed results. Public First, backed by Anthropic, supported several Republicans who lost via its affiliated PAC but found more success backing Democrats. It contributed $3 million to a PAC supporting California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who was leading at the time.
Meanwhile, Guardrails Alliance, which aims to make taking AI company money a political liability, spent over $1 million opposing California Rep. Jimmy Gomez and Montana's Flint, both losers. It also spent $300,000 supporting Angela Gonzales-Torres, who defeated Gomez.
Isolating the impact of AI-specific spending is difficult due to the broader Democratic wave. Elon Musk, who reportedly spent half a billion dollars on Republicans, also saw many candidates lose. LTF backed some likely winners who ultimately lost to Democrats.
For LTF, the general election wasn't the primary focus. The group told TechCrunch that primaries are more effective for building name recognition and establishing AI policy agendas. LTF spent $27.38 million in primaries, including $8 million opposing New York Assembly member Alex Bores.
LTF evaluates race competitiveness and potential impact before spending in general elections. Charlie Blaettler of Guardrails Alliance offered a different theory: LTF avoids competitive races to prevent their money from becoming a liability.
Blaettler cited the Michigan Senate primary, where AIPAC's spending made them the story. "People hate the people running these companies... If they spend in a competitive race, they would just become an enormous liability," he said.
The main debate among AI PACs is whether Congress should establish a national AI framework overriding state laws. LTF favors the national framework and plans to spend in 2028. Guardrails Alliance aims to keep opposing candidates backed by the industry.
While LTF ads focus on popular issues, Guardrails Alliance targets candidates taking AI money. "Our goal is to make AI money politically toxic," Blaettler stated.
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