Lasher wins New York House primary after AI groups spend heavily

Micah Lasher won the Democratic nomination for New York’s 12th Congressional District after a hard-fought Manhattan primary that became a national test case for AI money in House politics. The race drew more than $20 million in outside spending tied to the tech industry, yet Lasher held off a challenge built around AI regulation, celebrity names and deep-pocketed super PACs.

Lasher’s victory came in an open-seat contest created by Jerry Nadler’s retirement after 34 years in Congress. The district covers Midtown Manhattan, the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side and Central Park, and the primary featured nine Democratic candidates. Lasher defeated fellow Assemblyman Alex Bores, Jack Schlossberg, George Conway and Nina Schwalbe, with the Associated Press calling the race at 10:08 p.m. on June 23.

The final tally showed how close the race had become despite the spending blitz. With 94.21% of scanners reporting, Lasher led at 39.04%, Bores had 35.01%, Schlossberg 10.79%, Schwalbe 7.09% and Conway 6.09%. Lasher’s base of support included Gov. Kathy Hochul, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Nadler, who all backed him and helped anchor a campaign built on local ties, legislative experience and his support for redrawing New York’s congressional map to favor Democrats.

The most expensive fight centered on Bores, who wrote New York legislation requiring safety and security rules for powerful AI models. CNBC said two AI-linked super PACs spent more than $20 million in the race: Leading the Future, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and Perplexity, spent $8 million opposing Bores, while Public First Action, which had received $20 million from Anthropic, spent $11 million supporting him. The Associated Press also said Anthropic-backed groups poured in more than $10 million and an OpenAI-backed group spent more than $7 million attacking Bores.

Chris Larsen, the crypto billionaire, added another $3.5 million to support Bores, underscoring how the race pulled in investors, tech founders and regulatory skeptics from beyond the district. The result suggested that even in a wealthy, heavily Democratic corner of Manhattan, outside money could not simply overwhelm candidate biography, party backing and local brand recognition. It did, however, make AI policy one of the clearest campaign issues in a House primary this cycle, not a niche fight left to lobbyists and regulators.