AI industry and pro-safeguard groups spent millions on the midterms, and several heavily backed candidates lost

What happened

Political groups on both sides of the debate over artificial intelligence spent millions of dollars trying to influence Tuesday's midterm elections, TechCrunch reported. The money was aimed at shaping the future of AI regulation. The results were mixed, and some of the candidates who received the most support lost.

The spending came from industry-aligned political action committees (PACs) and from groups that want stronger AI safeguards. For more coverage of this week's results, see our elections section.

How industry-backed groups fared

Losses in South Carolina, Montana and North Carolina

According to TechCrunch, two AI-focused PACs, American Mission and Building the Future, together spent $4.8 million backing South Carolina Senate candidate Darline Graham, who lost. American Mission is the Republican spending arm of Leading the Future (LTF), a political group backed by OpenAI president Greg Brockman and the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.

American Mission also spent more than $500,000 each supporting Republican House candidates Aaron Flint in Montana and Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina. Both lost, TechCrunch reported.

A win in Florida

LTF's Democratic spending arm, Think Big, had more success. It backed Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who won reelection.

How pro-safeguard groups fared

Public First

Public First, which is backed by Anthropic, used an affiliated PAC to support several Republicans who lost, but it did better backing Democrats, TechCrunch reported. The group also gave $3 million to a PAC supporting California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who was leading his race when the article was published.

Guardrails Alliance

Guardrails Alliance, which has tried to make accepting AI company money a political liability, spent more than $1 million each opposing California Rep. Jimmy Gomez and Montana's Aaron Flint. Both lost. The group also spent $300,000 supporting Angela Gonzales-Torres, who defeated Gomez.

Why the results are hard to read

TechCrunch noted that it is difficult to separate the effect of AI-related spending from the broader Democratic wave in Tuesday's elections. Elon Musk, who reportedly spent half a billion dollars supporting Republicans, also saw many of his candidates lose. LTF backed some candidates it expected to win who then lost to Democrats.

Primaries as the main target

LTF told TechCrunch before Election Day that it sees primaries as a better use of its money, because spending there can build name recognition and help candidates set AI policy agendas. The group spent $27.38 million in primaries, including $8 million opposing New York Assembly member Alex Bores, who lost his bid for Congress in June.

A competing explanation

Charlie Blaettler, political director of Guardrails Alliance, offered another reason LTF spent less in the general election. "They don't want their money to become an issue in these elections," he told TechCrunch. He pointed to Michigan's Senate primary, where AIPAC spent close to $30 million backing Haley Stevens, who conceded to Abdul El-Sayed. El-Sayed went on to win the Senate seat.

The bigger fight: national rules or state rules

According to TechCrunch, the central dispute among AI-related PACs is whether Congress should create a national AI framework that overrides state laws, or whether states keep the power to set their own safeguards. LTF favors a single national framework. More on the technology and policy debates is in our AI and tech coverage.

Blaettler said LTF's ads rarely mention AI and instead focus on popular issues for each candidate, while Guardrails Alliance ads focus on who takes AI industry money. "Our goal is to make AI money politically toxic," he said.

What to watch next

• The final result in California state Sen. Scott Wiener's race, which he was leading when TechCrunch published.
• LTF's spending in the 2028 elections, which the group told TechCrunch it plans to continue.
• Guardrails Alliance's stated plan to keep opposing candidates backed by the AI industry.
• Whether Congress moves toward a national AI framework that would override state laws.