Micah Lasher won the Democratic nomination for New York's 12th Congressional District on 24 June 2026, defeating state Assemblyman Alex Bores in a primary that Bloomberg characterised as a '$29 million proxy battle over who will control the future of AI' [Source: Bloomberg]. NBC News projected Lasher as the winner of the contest, which covers upper and midtown Manhattan and is one of the wealthiest and most reliably Democratic districts in the country. The seat is being vacated by retiring Representative Jerry Nadler.
The contest crystallised around competing views on AI regulation. Bores had been a driving force behind New York's RAISE Act, legislation requiring safety and security oversight for powerful AI models. Leading the Future PAC — backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman, and AI company Perplexity — spent $8m opposing Bores through its Think Big super PAC. On the other side, Public First Action, which received $20m from Anthropic in February 2026, directed $11m in support of Bores, according to Federal Election Commission data reviewed by CNBC [Source: CNBC]. Groups linked to OpenAI and Anthropic collectively spent more than $23m on pro- and anti-Bores messaging, according to FEC filings [Source: NPR].
Bloomberg placed total spending at $29m, with Marc Andreessen and Greg Brockman among those on the winning side [Source: Bloomberg]. The Guardian cited more than $24m from tech-backed financial groups, with pro-AI PACs putting in more than $8m against Bores and industry groups supporting regulation spending more than $16m to counter those efforts [Source: The Guardian]. The $23m NPR figure covers only OpenAI- and Anthropic-linked PAC activity specifically.
The regulatory stakes extend beyond New York. The RAISE Act faces potential nullification under a federal AI framework proposed by President Donald Trump, which would bar states from enacting their own AI rules in favour of a national congressional standard [Source: Fortune]. Earlier in June, Trump signed an executive order asking AI companies to voluntarily provide models to the federal government for capability assessment ahead of full release [Source: CNBC]. In February 2026, Anthropic announced its $20m contribution to Public First Action, which opposes federal efforts to freeze state progress without adequate federal safeguards [Source: NPR].
Leading the Future, launched in 2025, has raised more than $75m and has already deployed $23.5m across dozens of races in states including Texas, Georgia, Illinois, and Montana, operating through a network of super PACs that includes Think Big and American Mission [Source: NPR]. Both OpenAI and Anthropic are planning initial public offerings later this year [Source: NPR]. Lasher entered the race with backing from Governor Kathy Hochul and former Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The field also included Kennedy family scion Jack Schlossberg and former Republican lawyer George Conway.
Sources: The Verge, NBC News, The Guardian, Bloomberg, CNBC, NPR, Fortune