Alex Bores, a Democratic candidate for the House, recently experienced both a defeat and an unexpected boost in his political career. On June 24, 2026, Bores narrowly lost his Democratic primary race in New York City, but his campaign gained significant attention due to attacks from the artificial intelligence (A.I.) industry.
While dining at a vegan restaurant with his wife, Darya Moldavskaya, Bores received a call with troubling news. A super PAC worth over $100 million, backed by the A.I. industry, planned to launch attack ads against him. Bores quickly drafted a fiery response statement during their anniversary celebration, guided by his expertise in A.I. regulation.
This strategy effectively turned Mr. Bores into a rallying symbol for those skeptical of the A.I. industry’s influence. Although he lost to fellow state legislator Micah Lasher, Bores benefited from substantial financial support from four super PACs aligned with rival A.I. interests. These groups invested $19 million into bolstering Bores’s campaign, far outmatching the $8 million spent against him by the A.I.-backed super PAC, Leading the Future.
The heightened spending on Bores’s campaign catapulted him into the spotlight within a crowded Democratic field, vying for a Manhattan seat vacated by retiring Representative Jerrold Nadler. While Lasher emerged victorious, even he admitted that the negative campaign against Bores may have inadvertently benefited Bores’s campaign by garnering public sympathy.