Pro-Regulation Guardrails Alliance Went 5-0 as AI Industry Super PACs Had Mixed Midterms

Guardrails Alliance said it spent more than $3.1 million opposing five candidates, all of whom lost.

The results give an early read on how far AI money can move voters ahead of the 2028 cycle, when both camps have said they will push for a national framework for regulating the technology.

Leading the Future, the AI industry's main advocacy super PAC, spent $4.8 million supporting Republican Darline Graham's bid to succeed her late brother in the Senate. Graham lost to Democrat Annie Andrews, who had nicknamed her "Data Center Darline" during the campaign. The group's spending helped Representative Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, win despite redistricting, but the Republican House candidates it backed lost, Semafor said, citing Wired.

Public First Action, which Semafor described as Anthropic-affiliated, spent $20 million in the general election. It backed winners including Representative Valerie Foushee of North Carolina and three representatives-elect: Brian Poindexter in Ohio, Manny Rutinel in Colorado and Scott Wiener, the author of California's AI safety law, in California. Republicans backed by its network lost.

None of the groups' money touched the most consequential AI outcome of the night: about 40 local ballot measures curbing data centre development passed across the country. A Republican operative told Semafor that Leading the Future had been surprised by their success and had not spent anything fighting them.

Leading the Future spokesman Jesse Hunt said the group was "proud that many of the pro-innovation champions we supported this cycle won on Tuesday" and called its spending part of "a multi-cycle effort". He said 2028 "will show who actually cares about passing a national regulatory framework on AI and who wants to politicize an issue that's extremely consequential to the future of our country."