This Democratic Primary Will Test if Voters Care About AI

Alex Bores, a New York state Assembly member who is running for an open House seat, has made artificial intelligence regulation the central pillar of his campaign.

On Tuesday, the results of the close Democratic primary he’s running in may help to answer one of the biggest outstanding questions of the 2026 midterm elections: Just how salient is this issue among voters? Since it’s being asked in a deep-blue Manhattan district, the outcome could end up shaping the Democratic brand for years to come.

“My hope is that the lesson that people learn on Tuesday is that standing with Americans … and advocating for strong regulation, even in spite of all of that money, is the winning electoral strategy,” Bores, who sponsored one of the first AI safety laws in the country, told NOTUS.

“People are going to care because AI is impacting their lives. And I think what will matter most is the track record of elected officials of actually fighting to pass real regulation and succeeding in doing that,” he said. “When someone’s kid becomes obsessed or enamored with an AI chatbot and it affects their mental health, that’s not political, that’s just a problem that needs to be solved.”

Bores — along with Jack Schlossberg, who is John F. Kennedy’s grandson, and Micah Lasher, also a New York Assembly member — is a frontrunner in the race to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York). Bores’ support for regulating the industry has been a centerpiece of his political ads, social media presence and interviews with the press throughout his campaign.

If elected to Congress, Bores wants to tax companies’ AI use, advance child-safety measures and establish transparency rules for large AI companies’ safety testing. He said voters are already living with the downsides of AI and will support candidates who can minimize those risks.

Adam Carlson, a progressive pollster and cofounder of Zenith Research, said a victory from Bores would send a signal to candidates and elected officials across the country.

“If Bores does win, it’s going to embolden a lot of people to take a stronger regulatory stance against AI. That could be in both parties, but particularly among Democrats,” Carlson said. “AI is the big untapped issue for both parties, because neither party in Congress right now has truly taken head-on the big stakes of AI.”

While there are other dynamics at play in the race, this is one of the purest tests of voter sentiment on AI this election cycle. AI has come up in other races, but Bores is singular in how aggressively he’s made it his main issue.

His platform has drawn lavish spending in the 12th Congressional District, both for and against Bores.

Leading the Future — a super PAC network backed by Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman — has spent roughly $8 million against Bores since December.

The group wants to leave the tech industry loose from regulation because it argues that will allow the U.S. to stay competitive, though a top adviser for Leading the Future, Josh Vlasto, told NOTUS in a statement that it supports “passing a national regulatory framework for AI that creates jobs for American workers, helps America win the race against China, and includes strong guardrails that protect the safety of kids, users, and communities.”

Leading the Future was modeled after Fairshake, a super PAC backed by the crypto industry that successfully supported crypto-friendly candidates in 2024. Fairshake helped unseat former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and helped elect Democrats such as Sens. Ruben Gallego (Arizona) and Elissa Slotkin (Michigan) to their current seats.

Meanwhile, Public First, another super PAC network whose backers include the AI company Anthropic, supports federal and state regulation of AI and has spent roughly $12 million since February in support of Bores.

“AI has propelled Alex to the forefront of this race. And it’s made him a national star,” said Brad Carson, the chair of Public First. He argued that even if Bores loses, if it’s by a “very narrow margin,” that would prove there is political support behind AI regulation.

Carson advised against “reading too much” into Tuesday’s results, since there are other issues besides AI that might influence the election.

Recent polling has found that public perception of AI is overwhelmingly negative. More than 50% of Americans are “more concerned than excited” about AI, according to a Pew Research Center poll from last year. April polling by The Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos found that 51% of Americans don’t trust Republicans or Democrats to do a good job of “handling” AI. And only 18% of Gen Z respondents to a Gallup Poll this year said they feel hopeful about the technology.

Lasher’s campaign declined to comment for this story. Schlossberg’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Both have deep connections to the 12th District and have support from the Democratic establishment — Lasher has secured the endorsements of Nadler and Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Schlossberg was endorsed by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Lasher and Schlossberg have also framed Bores as an ally to the AI industry by arguing that Anthropic’s ties to Public First mean he actually has the industry’s backing.

In a debate this month, Schlossberg criticized Bores for being “in the pocket of big tech,” casting doubt on Bores’ willingness to crack down on the AI industry. In that same debate, Lasher said he could handle AI regulation better than Bores because he is “not backed by any of the big AI companies.”

When NOTUS asked Bores about Public First spending, he said, “My record here is clear.”

“Last year I passed the strongest AI safety law in the country over the objection of Donald Trump’s executive order,” Bores said. “I’ve always been on the side of fighting for families and for our jobs and for our environment.”

There are some indicators that widespread opposition to AI has reached new levels. Over the past few months, booing AI during commencement speeches has become a trend. Tens of billions of dollars in data center investments, the underlying infrastructure behind AI, have been blocked across the country at the local level. And progressives leaders such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) have proposed that the U.S. government buy 50% of AI companies so the public can cash in on the industry’s success.

While some Congress are still trying to navigate the new political lines drawn by AI, others like Sanders say they don’t need election results to know the best path forward.

“Well, I don’t need to look at that or any result,” Sanders told NOTUS. “All over the country people are expressing their concerns about AI and data centers, and that’s why I’ve introduced the concept of the AI sovereign wealth fund.”