The Biggest Pro-AI Super Pac Network Didn't Really Impact the Midterms

Leading the Future, the largest pro-AI super PAC network, walked away from the midterms with just over $20 million still in the bank and a roster of dozens of winning congressional candidates from both parties. By the network's own framing that reads as a win; the allocation of money tells a more complicated story, with donations flowing overwhelmingly to candidates who were already safe and mixed results in the handful of riskier races it entered.

The network launched in August 2025 with roughly $100 million from Silicon Valley backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, and OpenAI's Greg Brockman, vowing to "oppose policies that stifle innovation." Structured as a "organized ecosystem" of 501(c)(4)s alongside federal and state super PACs, it split its giving by party: American Mission largely backed Republicans, Think Big largely backed Democrats. The design and shared strategists drew early comparisons to Fairshake, the well-funded pro-crypto network that dominated the 2024 cycle.

Spending then tapered sharply, with roughly $10 million in total outlays during the general election, overwhelmingly in safe races, and the network reported zero donations in the second and third quarters. The timing coincided with polling showing broad distrust of Big Tech and Washington cronyism; an NBC exit poll found 56 percent of voters said AI and data centers played a "major" role in their vote. Haworth characterized the safe-race spending as "an influence play" meant to "ingratiate themselves with incoming members of Congress."

Public First co-founder Brad Carson called the results a mandate for AI safety: "Voters in both parties delivered the same verdict tonight... a crushing blow to the AI industry's anti-regulatory efforts to buy a Congress that would look the other way." What remains open is whether the residual war chest and the dozens of elected candidates it backed translate into legislative influence in the new Congress, and whether the pattern of pro-industry money landing in primaries but fading in generals repeats in future cycles.

Whether the strategy of spending in primaries and retreating into safe seats becomes the template for the next cycle — and whether AI safety money answers with the same playbook — is the question to watch.