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AI PACs post a mixed US midterm scorecard

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Industry and safety-focused AI PACs spent millions on the US midterms. Several heavily backed candidates lost; the core fight remains a federal framework versus state safeguards.

· 1 min read

Hand placing a ballot paper into a voting box
Image: Element5 Digital / Pexels · Pexels · Source

Who spent

Per TechCrunch, industry-aligned American Mission and Building the Future spent $4.8 million backing South Carolina Senate candidate Darline Graham, who lost. Leading the Future (LTF) arms also backed House races with mixed outcomes. Safety-leaning Public First (backed by Anthropic) and Guardrails Alliance likewise spent millions. After fights over publisher and scraping rules, AI money moved into electoral politics.

What is at stake

  • Industry side: a single national AI framework that can preempt state laws.
  • Safety side: keep state-level safeguards; Guardrails wants AI industry cash treated as a political liability.
  • LTF focused firepower on primaries ($27.38 million) and stayed selective in the general election.

Caveat

PAC impact is hard to separate from the broader Democratic wave. Midterms did not settle a federal AI statute, but both camps say they will keep spending into 2028.

    By Mikola Máté Patrik

    Produced with the help of AI, reviewed by an editor. How we make our articles

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