Super PACs Raise $190 Million for AI Policy in Midterms

Super PACs focused on AI policy have raised substantial funds ahead of the midterm elections, with Leading the Future collecting $140 million and Public First Action holding $50 million in cash, including $20 million from Anthropic. Leading the Future is funded primarily by OpenAI president Greg Brockman and tech investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.

Public First Action is affiliated with super PACs dedicated to supporting candidates that will back public safeguards against AI.

More than 60 percent of both Republicans and Democrats polled by Ipsos earlier in 2026 agree that the government should regulate AI for economic stability and public safety. The same poll found that more than 60 percent of both parties agree AI’s development should slow down.

Alec Tyson, the lead pollster for Ipsos Public Affairs, stated that when asked what’s on their mind, AI and data centers aren’t rising to the top of the list at least not yet.

Tyson added that broad topics like the economy and immigration remain priorities for many voters. He stated that the amount of available space or potential for another issue to break through has to be a pretty acute or powerful concern, and we’re just not seeing that at the national level with AI yet. The Verge reported these findings as part of broader coverage on AI's role in elections.

Data Center Watch, a group that tracks data center projects and their opposition, found that 55 percent of politicians who publicly opposed large data center projects were Republicans. Opposition to data center projects has blocked or delayed $64 billion worth of development across the country, according to Data Center Watch.

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warned that AI could eliminate half of entry-level white collar jobs. Palantir CEO Alex Karp said that Democratic voters could see a hit to their economic power while working-class, often male voters benefit. Three suspects allegedly attacked Sam Altman’s home in two separate attacks over a matter of days.

A former Democratic congressman opposes efforts to override state AI regulations. He is part of Public First Action and Americans for Responsible Innovation, a group focused on educating policymakers about AI. Sen.

Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) support a pause on data center development. New York State lawmaker Alex Bores, who is running for reelection, cosponsored a bill originally meant to add safety and transparency requirements for large AI model developers.

Brendan Steinhauser is the CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI, a nonprofit that aims to defend humanity in the AI age. The Alliance for Secure AI runs an online tracker of layoffs attributed to AI. The Alliance’s tracker has tallied over 110,000 job losses in the US attributed to AI.

Of those, 30,000 job losses attributed to AI came from layoffs at Oracle. The Verge reported that communities have mounted resistance to data center projects, stalling them across the US, and that on social media, anger at AI companies and executives is unrestrained, sometimes to the point of condoning violence.

Lauren Feiner, a senior policy reporter at The Verge, authored the article published on April 21, 2026, at 7:00 PM UTC.

Feiner spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC.