The AI industry’s $100 million play to influence the 2026 elections
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Dormant Commerce Clause
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The article centers on a controversial legal argument that state AI regulations violate the Commerce Clause. Understanding the dormant Commerce Clause doctrine—how courts determine when state laws unconstitutionally burden interstate commerce—is essential to evaluating whether this legal strategy has merit or is a novel overreach.
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Citizens United v. FEC
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The $100 million Super PAC spending described in this article is enabled by the Citizens United decision. Understanding this landmark 2010 case explains how unlimited corporate and individual spending in elections became legal and why groups like Leading the Future can operate as they do.
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Effective altruism
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The article mentions effective altruism in connection with AI safety advocacy and Sam Bankman-Fried. Understanding this philosophical movement explains why certain donors fund AI safety research and the ideological divide between AI accelerationists and those pushing for regulation.
As the 2026 midterms approach, President Trump is facing headwinds.
Trump’s job approval is low and has declined rapidly since September. A recent Gallup poll found that only 32% of Americans approve of how Trump has managed the economy. Even in the best of times, the party in power typically loses seats in a midterm election. In 2026, Trump and the Republicans are at risk of losing the House and, potentially, the Senate.
The most straightforward way to try to buck these trends is money. Cash for candidates to promote their strengths and exploit their opponents’ weaknesses. Likely the biggest source of cash in the 2026 election will come from Leading the Future (LTF), a group formed just a few months ago.
LTF has already secured more than $100 million, including $50 million from venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz and another $50 million from OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman. Other known supporters include Joe Lonsdale, the co-founder of Palantir who recently advocated for the return of public hangings, and the AI company Perplexity. The full list of donors to LTF is unknown because the organization is so new it has not yet had to make a substantive filing with the Federal Elections Commission.
According to its website, LTF is “focused on advancing a positive, forward-looking agenda for AI innovation.” It plans to do that by “identifying, maintaining, and growing pro-AI candidates.”
The effort, at least at the outset, was nominally bipartisan. LTF indicated it would “back candidates of both parties who support a national framework for artificial intelligence regulations.” In addition to Zac Moffatt, a prominent Republican operative, LTF hired Josh Vlasto, a Democratic operative who has worked for Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
This did not go over well with the Trump White House. “AI has no better ally than President Trump, so it’s inexplicable why any company would put money into the midterms behind a Schumer-operative who is working against President Trump to elect Democrats,” a person “familiar with Trump’s thinking” told NBC News in October. “It’s a slap in the face, and the White House has definitely taken notice.”
This shot across the bow appears to be working.
On Wednesday, LTF released its first two television ads. The first ad promotes Republican Chris Gober, a candidate for Congress in Texas’ 10th District. Gober is in a crowded ...
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