The expensive fight between AI companies over a New York congressional primary came to an end Tuesday when Alex Bores, a state Assemblyman, narrowly lost to Micah Lasher — 35% to 39.1% — in the race to represent New York’s 12th Congressional District.
The race became a proxy war after Bores co-authored the RAISE Act, which implemented safety requirements on frontier AI companies. Leading the Future, a $100 million super PAC funded by OpenAI, Palantir, and Andreessen Horowitz executives, spent $8.15 million against him. Anthropic-backed super PACs poured $19.26 million into supporting Bores.
But the race was about more than AI. Lasher had the backing of the city’s political establishment, including a super PAC run by Michael Bloomberg. He was also the protégé of retiring Congressman Jerry Nadler. Jack Schlossberg came in third with 10.8%, while George Conway finished fifth with just 7.1%.
Bores, who said he didn’t enter the race to make “a singular point about AI,” congratulated Lasher. The outcome suggests that while AI money can nationalize a local race, it can’t always overcome local political machinery.
