AI-sponsored ads abound in the 2026 election. They are about everything but AI.
Competitive PACs backed by the AI industry, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, are already pouring in money through the 2026 midterms, starting with the year’s first primaries in Texas and North Carolina.
There’s just one thing missing from their ads so far: any hint of artificial intelligence.
The groups want to shape how AI models and companies are regulated across the country, a debate that major AI players see as the future of the industry, the United States and the world. But instead of the real policy reason they’re taking sides in these primaries, the parties are relying on red meat or progressive messages on other hot-button issues.
It’s a strategy used by teams in other areas. But the initial AI-driven spending on ads about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, President Donald Trump, health care and more is all the more remarkable because of the dramatic level of change the AI titans expect their product to bring to American workers and society.
The powers that be support big PACs and fund large nonprofits that can use big money to change public opinion on AI going forward. However, for now, their biggest problem is not to be found in their big political campaigns.
So far, two competing umbrella organizations have dominated the use of AI in conference races. Leading the Future — which has received significant funding from OpenAI founder Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna Brockman, as well as venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Benjamin Horowitz — is one of the largest PACs pushing for a national AI framework and criticizing the prospect of separate federal regulations governing the industry.
Leading the Future lost $39 million at the end of last year and is entering races with affiliated groups, one associated with each party: Think Big, which supports Democrats, and American Mission, which supports Republicans.
Public First, another top PAC, wants to fight Leading the Future and its network. The group has received at least $20 million from AI firm Anthropic and has called for significant AI regulation. It also has two major PACs working together: the Jobs and Democracy PAC supporting the Democrats and Protecting Our Heritage supporting the Republicans.
Brad Carson, a former congressman and Defense Department official who helps lead Public First, told NBC News in a statement that while the public recognizes the importance of this issue, “we know that AI is not the first thing on every voter’s mind when they go to the polls.”
“They are concerned about the cost of living, about corruption, about whether the economy works for ordinary people or only for tech billionaires. We believe that those concerns cannot be separated from AI,” added Carson, who served two terms in the House as a Democrat from Oklahoma. “We support candidates who understand what’s coming and who will fight for working families as this technology takes off. AI is a problem right now, and you want leaders who have thought about what the impact will look like.”
A piece of New York City has emerged as the starting point for a major battle between the two sides. The Democratic House primary aimed at retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler is very crowded, but AI groups are focused on one candidate: state legislator Alex Bores, a proponent of AI security laws in New York and a former data scientist at Palantir Technologies who says he quit that job because of his frustration with the company’s work with Customs Immigration.
Think Big, a member of Leading the Future, has spent more than $1.5 million attacking Bores, including hammering him over Palantir’s ICE work — even though Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale supported the group and Bores said he left the company over his opposition to the work.
“In black and white: Alex Bores’ tech company works for ICE,” says the narrator in Think Big’s new digital ad for the race.
The Jobs and Democracy PAC, a Public First affiliate, labeled the attack as critical and profit-driven in its ads.
“Billionaires on the right wing think they can buy this congressional seat, the very ones who harbor hate, fund lies and encourage ICE raids on our community. Their target: Congressman Alex Bores, because he’s the only one who stood up to them before,” said a narrator in a recent PAC ad for Jobs and Democracy.
Think Big is also spending more than a million dollars each in support of two former Illinois Congressmen, Jesse Jackson Jr. and Melissa Bean, in their comeback bid. Ads in both of those races echo Jackson and Bean’s accomplishments in Congress, including voting for the Affordable Care Act — long before the AI debate entered the halls of Congress. Both Illinois Democrats are running for open, blue-chip, Chicagoland seats where the March primary will serve as a de-facto general election.
Then there is the request of Rep. Valerie Foushee is up for re-election in North Carolina’s Research Triangle, where Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam is attacking her left-wing incumbent. Foushee is a member of the Bipartisan House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence, and there’s a big AI-related battle going on in the region because of the new data center push.
The incumbent has called for regulations on data centers to reduce any energy or environmental impacts in the past, and addressed the data center debate in a social media video this week, saying that while he doesn’t personally support a new data center, he trusts local officials to “make the right choice.” Allam dismissed the proposal, saying the data centers had been shut down and attacked Foushee because an AI-linked group was spending money on his behalf.
Indeed, Public First is the only major AI group spending in the region, looking to boost Foushee with more than $1.6 million pouring into the race in its final weeks.
But while the data center debate is playing out in local politics, it’s not in the pro-Foushee ad, which instead positions the incumbent as a progressive fighter on issues like immigration raids and holding Trump accountable. The use of AI has prompted a small counter from the Justice Democrats, a progressive group that supports Allam, which dropped a new digital ad this week criticizing the incumbent for receiving support from the AI industry.
Both parties are also raising preferred candidates in other, less prominent races.
The Lead the Future’s Republican group is spending $500,000 each on general ads, promoting Republicans Laurie Buckhout in the swing state of North Carolina and Chris Gober — a former legal adviser to Elon Musk’s 2024 political party — in open, safe, Republican Texas.
The First Social Network is also using money to promote two Republicans who are heavy favorites to win their primary election in Texas without going into AI in their ads: Army veteran Alex Mealer and Air Force veteran Carlos De La Cruz.
The decision to de-emphasize the main issue that motivates these groups is not a new strategy. Groups with political goals in Israel, cryptocurrency, the environment and so on have been choosing to fight their political battles using other issues that are more important to the primary or general voters, separating the political goals of winning the election from the policy goals that they hope the winner will support instead.
Jesse Hunt, a spokesman for Leading the Future, told NBC News that the group supports and vets candidates “we believe are the best candidates when it comes to AI,” adding that it uses both candidate questionnaires, as well as reviews of public statements or relevant records, to help guide them. He added that the AI debate is “still in its infancy” and he expects it to evolve in this election cycle and next.
“The management was clear where they stand on this issue, but some members of Congress have started to make their positions, what they want to see in these companies, how they stand to benefit the people under them, their districts, and how they stand to benefit the American economy,” he said.
Hunt said the public discussion about AI policy “will see it grow over time as people become more informed.” He added: “Through that process, you’re going to see a lot of discussion about ways that can improve the lives of a lot of people.”
