AI-focused political groups spent millions of dollars trying to influence Tuesday's midterm elections, and their results were mixed, according to TechCrunch reporter Rebecca Bellan. Some of the most heavily backed candidates lost.
On the industry side, American Mission and Building the Future collectively 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 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. LTF's Democratic arm, Think Big, backed Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, who won reelection.
Groups favoring stronger AI safeguards also had mixed results. Public First, backed by Anthropic, supported several Republicans who lost through an affiliated PAC. It had more success with Democratic candidates. It also contributed $3 million to a PAC supporting California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who was leading at the time of publ