The 2026 midterms are unlikely to be dominated by the debate over artificial intelligence, but a new pro-AI network of political action committees is releasing its first candidate ads on the topic in the runup to them.
The ads, from Leading the Future, a pro-AI bipartisan network of affiliated PACs that formed in June to influence election campaigns, target congressional races in Texas and New York and represent a potential preview of the hundreds of millions of dollars the tech industry will spend before next year’s elections. The ads were first shared with CNN.
The ads represent the “initial phase of its operation in the midterms,” Leading the Future said, noting that two more similar advertisements are launching in other primary states in seven-figure ad buys.
And groups beyond OpenAI are also busting catalogs: Former Reps. Brad Carson, a Democrat, and Chris Stewart, a Republican, have teamed up to form an organization called Public First — not just one super PAC but an entire network of them — that will support efforts and candidates who are looking to regulate AI. Recently Meta unveiled its own bipartisan super PAC called the American Technology Excellence Project, which is working in part to fight pushes for AI regulation at the state level.
Here’s another one of the ads that just started running on YouTube from the SuperPAC 218 Project.
These ads appear to be the first ever paid digital ads from the group pic.twitter.com/fh4vHSakQc
— Andrew Arenge (@MrArenge) December 18, 2025
The stakes are immense: In a matter of years, AI has become a significant driver of the United States stock market and an economic force — not to mention a major presence in people’s daily lives. Demand for to its computer chips soared, making it the first company in the world valued at $5 trillion earlier this year. Big Tech companies like Meta (formerly Facebook), OpenAI, Alphabet, Oracle, Apple and Microsoft have poured billions of dollars into hiring people for research and development on AI products in a search to build an early lead in the race for AI dominance over what is still a fast-growing market.
But critics argue that the push to develop ever more sophisticated AI models has massive downsides in areas such as privacy and child safety, where a regulatory framework is far behind rapid advances in technology. And a few tech pioneers themselves point out that AI presents possible threats to the economy and to the world.
Recent polling from the Pew Research Center, for instance, in November found that almost equal shares of Republicans and Democrats report being more worried than enthusiastic about the greater use of artificial intelligence in daily life. And back in September, 80% of US adults told Gallup that they “think the government should continue to have laws regulating the testing and development of self-driving cars even if it means AI technology becomes available more slowly.”
Leading the Future also supports an approach to regulate AI at the federal level, rather than having state by state rules — an approach that is preferred by industry as well as the administration of President Donald Trump.
On Monday, Trump said he will sign an executive order granting itself authority to create federal policy regarding AI rather than allow states to “act as their own arbiters,” though it’s not clear yet what that would even mean. The Trump administration claims state rules could choke the flow of America’s AI industry, which is a vital issue for the nation’s protection and safety.
Congress could consider passing a possible framework for regulating AI in the next year — House Democrats on Tuesday said they are creating a Democratic Commission on AI and Innovation Economy to “build policy expertise in coordination” with so-called AI companies and other interested groups.
The new ad by Leading the Future helped underscore this divide, with one directed at a Texas candidate and another at a New York candidate.
One ad backs Chris Gober, an attorney who is running in the Republican primary for Texas’s new 10th congressional district. The ad refers to Gober — who has done stints with Elon Musk’s America Super PAC and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — as a “Trump conservative.” And while the ad is funded by American Mission, a member of leading the Future’s network, it does not name AI directly (it only talks about “promoting American technology investment” in our race to out-invest China).
In an email Gober told CNN that he’s running to “champion” the “world-class innovators” in his district and to “create policies that make sure America wins the global technology race.”
The second ad goes after New York State Assemblyman Alex Bores, who is running for in New York’s 12th congressional district and has become known as a critic who favors AI safety guardrails. And in contrast to Gober’s ad, the Leading the Future-run Think Big PAC ad targeting Bores goes hard after Bores for advocating to regulate AI at the state level.
In response, Bores criticized President Trump’s recent actions on AI and what he described as a “handful of AI billionaires” who were angry because he “would dare to stand up to them to protect our jobs, our kids’ minds and our security.”
