AI money finds resistance on the campaign trail

• Industry-backed groups have spent the last year raising hundreds of millions of dollars to influence the political debate around AI — and in the process, made the technology a more visible issue for voters.
• Leading the Future, a pro-AI industry super PAC backed by tech execs and investors pushing rapid AI development and lighter regulation, has raised over $100 million and thrown its weight behind nearly 30 races so far.
• Tuesday's results offered an early glimpse of how fights over AI regulation, data centers and the industry's influence could reverberate on the campaign trail.

New York: Pro-AI safety candidate Alex Bores lost out to fellow Democrat Micah Lasher in a heavily-watched, expensive race. But this isn't a simple tale of AI super PAC money yielding results, nor a sign that future candidates will cower from pro-AI safety stances.

• Bores, running to replace Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), grew to national prominence as the top target of Leading the Future, turning the primary into the highest-profile AI fight in the country.
• Lasher co-sponsored New York's sweeping AI safety bill, the RAISE Act, and supports a data center buildout moratorium.

What they're saying: Bores was polling in the single digits before Leading the Future got involved in the race, Encode AI general counsel Nathan Calvin told Axios.

• "The backlash from their push elevated Bores to within a few thousand votes of a congressional seat," Calvin said.
• Asked for comment on Bores' loss, Leading the Future co-founder Josh Vlasto said the organization would continue backing candidates who support a national AI regulatory framework "with strong and smart guardrails."
• Calvin said the most telling part of LTF's response was what it didn't say: "Perhaps the most remarkable sign, though, is Leading the Future themselves refraining from saying a word celebrating Bores's loss, I think they know they were not responsible for it."

Utah: Republican Doug Fiefia won election to the Utah state Senate after spending months publicly defiant on AI safety issues that put him at odds with the Trump administration.

• The White House earlier this year pressured Fiefia to drop his AI transparency bill, an early target of the administration's campaign against state-level AI regulation.

• But the lawmaker leaned into calling out AI super PAC and tech oligarch money in his election, and said he plans to continue pursuing AI policy in the state Senate.
• "The chamber may change, but the issues and my focus won't," he said. "The Senate gives me a larger opportunity to keep working on the issues I've been focused on from day one."

Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah)'s victory over state legislator Karianne Lisonbee, meanwhile, highlighted how data centers have emerged as a crucial political issue in their own right.

• Lisonbee sought to make Moore's position on the proposed Stratos data center project a central issue in the race. The project, backed by businessman and TV personality Kevin O'Leary, has become a flashpoint in the state over its size and water demands.
• Moore did not directly oppose the project, instead emphasizing the national security importance of data centers and calling for local communities to have a seat at the table for water and other resource management.

The bottom line: AI money is reshaping the campaign landscape, but this week's results suggest that challenging the industry isn't proving politically toxic.