The $100 million Leading the Future super PAC, backed by Greg Brockman of OpenAI, the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Joe Lonsdale, contested the primaries held on Tuesday 2 June 2026, spending against regulation-minded candidates in California and Montana races1. The committee has committed over $100 million to the 2026 midterms and is lined up for the 27 June Louisiana runoff. A $50 million counter-PAC, Public First, has formed to back pro-regulation candidates, bringing combined spending on the question to $150 million.
Primaries are cheaper to influence than general elections and draw far lower turnout, so a relatively small sum can pick favourable nominees before the wider electorate engages. Leading the Future is run in part by a former crypto super-PAC operative reusing the 2024 playbook that flooded primaries early to lock in friendly candidates. The same fight that has stalled in Congress is being settled at the nomination stage instead.
The spending tracks the policy. As state bills such as California's SB 951 advance the case for AI-displacement rules, the industry is contesting the legislators who would write and vote on them. The $150 million committed on both sides signals that the participants expect AI labour policy to be decided in statehouses and primary ballots rather than on the Senate floor, and they are funding the contest accordingly.
