{"id":75317,"date":"2026-06-24T18:55:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T23:55:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/24\/new-york-congressional-primary-becomes-second-most-expensive-house-race-ever-amid-ai-fight\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T18:55:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T23:55:37","slug":"new-york-congressional-primary-becomes-second-most-expensive-house-race-ever-amid-ai-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/24\/new-york-congressional-primary-becomes-second-most-expensive-house-race-ever-amid-ai-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"New York congressional primary becomes second most expensive House race ever amid AI fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The primary for <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/northeast\/new-york\">New York<\/a>\u2019s 12th Congressional District has emerged as the second-most expensive House primary race on record after becoming a high-stakes proxy battle over artificial intelligence (AI) regulation.<\/p>\n<p>The race \u2014 which covers Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side, Upper West Side and Midtown \u2014 saw a staggering $26.3 million in ad spending, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AdImpact_Pol\/status\/2069150016921341961\">according<\/a> to AdImpact Politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kentucky\u2019s 4th Congressional District between Thomas Massie and Ed Gallrein, held this year, reportedly ranked first with $33.2 million in ad spending.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/politics\/elections\">Election results<\/a> showed Micah Lasher, a strong advocate for stricter AI regulations, defeating state Rep. Alex Bores, a tech expert who campaigned heavily on safety concerns.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/dem-state-lawmakers-blame-big-tech-pressure-after-ny-gov-hochul-severely-scales-back-ai-safety-legislation\"><strong>DEM LAWMAKERS CRY FOUL AS HOCHUL GUTS AI SAFETY BILL AMID BIG TECH PRESSURE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The contest was decided by a narrow margin, with Lasher securing 39% of the vote and Bores receiving 35% as they competed to <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/rep-jerry-nadlers-chosen-successor-wins-crowded-nyc-primary-big-name-rivals-fall-short\">replace longtime Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Bores, a former data scientist at Palantir who holds a master\u2019s degree in computer science, became a key target in the broader fight between <span class=\"_suggestionUnderline_1elhj_1268 _agentSuggestion_1elhj_1284\" data-suggestion-id=\"5ea805ea-7da0-4bfa-850c-0e1209cef834\" data-is-insertion=\"false\" data-suggestion-type=\"_METADATA\" data-highlighted=\"false\">competing factions of the AI<\/span> industry.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/ai-backed-super-pac-expands-multiple-gop-primaries-claiming-early-wins\"><strong>AI-BACKED SUPER PAC EXPANDS INTO MULTIPLE GOP PRIMARIES AFTER CLAIMING EARLY WINS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to AdImpact Politics, $9.3 million was spent supporting Bores, who also faced the largest share of attack ad spending, with $3.6 million in negative ads targeting him.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond ad spending, the <span class=\"_suggestionUnderline_1elhj_1268 _agentSuggestion_1elhj_1284\" data-suggestion-id=\"a65a1351-c07c-4feb-9f18-eb526729428c\" data-is-insertion=\"false\" data-suggestion-type=\"_METADATA\" data-highlighted=\"false\">Silicon Valley-backed super PAC<\/span> Leading the Future spent more than $8 million opposing Bores\u2019 nomination in an effort to keep tech-skeptical lawmakers out of Washington, <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/technology\/5936042-bores-lasher-ai-primary\/\">according<\/a> to the Hill.<\/p>\n<p>The group is funded by <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/ai-power-players-pour-cash-competitive-primaries-2026-midterms-heat-up\">major tech figures including OpenAI<\/a> President Greg Brockman and venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, multiple <span class=\"_suggestionUnderline_1elhj_1268 _agentSuggestion_1elhj_1284\" data-suggestion-id=\"dba92048-62bc-4e5a-a4c8-a7f1156f6607\" data-is-insertion=\"false\" data-suggestion-type=\"_METADATA\" data-highlighted=\"false\">AI safety<\/span> groups spent more than $20 million backing Bores, the Hill reported, highlighting the deep divide within the tech community over how aggressively the government should regulate artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>Lasher received $8.6 million in support spending, while $1.6 million was spent on attack ads targeting him, according to AdImpact Politics.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond the AI policy battle, billionaire and former <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/new-york-city\">New York City<\/a> Mayor Michael Bloomberg poured millions of his own money to support Lasher\u2019s campaign, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) documents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The primary for New York\u2019s 12th Congressional District has emerged as the second-most expensive House primary race on record after becoming a high-stakes proxy battle over artificial intelligence (AI) regulation. The race \u2014 which covers Manhattan\u2019s Upper East Side, Upper West Side and Midtown \u2014 saw a staggering $26.3 million in ad spending, according to &#8230; <a title=\"New York congressional primary becomes second most expensive House race ever amid AI fight\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/24\/new-york-congressional-primary-becomes-second-most-expensive-house-race-ever-amid-ai-fight\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about New York congressional primary becomes second most expensive House race ever amid AI fight\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}