Leading the Future, an AI industry-backed political network created to influence US policy and elections, appears to have fallen short of its goal of shaping the 2026 election cycle. Although the group raised and spent significant sums, most donations went to safe candidates, while the few high-stakes races in which it participated produced results that did not demonstrate the network’s intended power.
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A bipartisan political network
Leading the Future was designed as a “structured ecosystem” intended to provide “maximum flexibility for election cycles beyond 2026.” The network includes 501(c)(4) organizations and federal and state super PACs operating on both sides of the political aisle.
American Mission primarily supports Republicans, while Think Big primarily supports Democrats. The network’s structure and overlapping strategists quickly drew comparisons with Fairshake, a large and well-funded professional crypto super PAC network that dominated the 2024 election.
“They came out with guns blazing and said, don’t be afraid, we’re going to spend millions of dollars not only to influence how your legislators legislate for us, but to influence you against you in primaries and redistricting,” Sasha Howarth, executive director of the Technology Oversight Project, told WIRED. “The goal was to bully legislators into silence and intimidate them into not having any involvement in AI safety or the regulation of the tech industry.”
Leading the Future did not respond to requests for comment.
A high-profile New York primary
Late last year, Leading the Future targeted Democrat Alex Boaz, a former Palantir engineer and state lawmaker who ran on an AI safety platform in New York’s 12th Congressional District. The group spent millions of dollars on attack advertisements opposing his primary campaign.
“They fully expected to bury him, put his head on a spike and parade it around as proof that they could do that,” Howarth said.
Instead, Boaz’s campaign became a high-profile proxy battle between competing visions for AI policy, raising his profile and drawing attention to his platform. Public First, a pro-AI safety network heavily funded by Anthropic, spent $15 million supporting his campaign.
Boaz did not win, but he finished second in a crowded primary behind Mika Lasher, another candidate who advocated technological responsibility and AI safety.
Source: www.wired.com
