Political groups linked to OpenAI and Anthropic achieved mixed results in the US elections

Political groups linked to the AI industry spent millions of dollars in Tuesday's US elections to support or remove specific candidates, with mixed results. Leading the Future (LTF), a group backed by OpenAI president Greg Brockman and the investment firm Andreessen Horowitz, spent $4.8 million through its affiliates American Mission and Building the Future to support South Carolina Senate candidate Darlene Graham, who lost. American Mission also spent over $500 000 to support congressional candidates Aaron Flint (Montana) and Laurie Buckhout (North Carolina), both of whom lost. LTF's Democratic affiliate, Think Big, by contrast succeeded in supporting Florida congressman Jared Moskowitz, who retained his seat.

Groups advocating stronger AI regulation had similarly mixed results. Public First, backed by Anthropic, supported several Republican candidates who lost, but succeeded with several Democratic candidates; it also contributed $3 million to a PAC supporting California senator Scott Wiener, who was leading in his race at the time of publication. Guardrails Alliance, a group trying to make accepting money from AI companies a political liability, spent over $1 million opposing California congressman Jimmy Gomez and Montana's Aaron Flint, both of whom lost; it also spent $300 000 supporting Angela Gonzales-Torres, who defeated Gomez.

According to the source, it is difficult to separate the influence of AI-linked funding from the broader Democratic victory in Tuesday's elections — similarly mixed results were seen in funding from Elon Musk, who reportedly put half a billion dollars into supporting Republicans. For LTF, the main focus was not the general election but the primaries: the group put $27.38 million into primaries, including $8 million opposing New York legislator Alex Bores, who lost his primary back in June.

Both sides plan to continue — LTF wants to keep investing through the 2028 elections as well, while Guardrails Alliance wants to keep confronting AI-industry-backed candidates with the goal, according to its political director Charlie Blaettler, of making AI money politically toxic. The main dispute between the two camps remains whether Congress should establish a unified national AI framework that would preempt individual states' laws, or whether states should retain their own regulatory authority.