AI Factions, Mayor Mamdani, and President Trump Shape Key Primary Battles

Primary elections across four states on Tuesday showcased the growing political influence of the artificial intelligence industry, the clout of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and President Donald Trump’s strategic maneuvering after recent electoral setbacks.

In Manhattan, a crowded Democratic primary for a U.S. House seat became a proxy war between two AI industry factions. The contest centered on New York Assemblyman Alex Bores, a former Palantir employee who cited ethical concerns when leaving the company and championed one of the most sweeping state-level AI regulation bills in the country. Bores has framed that legislation as a blueprint for federal regulation, prompting a political group backed by OpenAI investors to spend over $7 million on ads opposing him. In response, groups partly funded by Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude, spent more than $10 million to support Bores. Anthropic was co-founded by a former OpenAI employee who left partly over AI safety concerns, highlighting the deep divide within the tech community. The outcome will serve as a bellwether for both factions' political power.

Mayor Mamdani tested his own influence by endorsing progressive and democratic socialist candidates in three key New York races. In a district spanning lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, Mamdani backed former comptroller Brad Lander against incumbent U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, with the war in Gaza emerging as a major issue between the two Jewish candidates. In upper Manhattan, 32-year-old democratic socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier, a public defender, challenged 71-year-old U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat. In the race to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Nydia Velázquez in Brooklyn and Queens, Mamdani endorsed Assemblymember Claire Valdez, another self-described democratic socialist, against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who is backed by Velázquez. The results will gauge not only Mamdani’s political power but also the endurance of democratic socialist platforms in the city.

President Trump, after seeing his chosen gubernatorial candidates lose in Georgia and Iowa earlier this month, adopted an unusual strategy in South Carolina’s Republican gubernatorial runoff. Having initially endorsed Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette in May, Trump added an endorsement for her opponent, state Attorney General Alan Wilson, on Friday, ensuring his endorsement would back the eventual winner regardless of the outcome.