Unprecedented sums are being spent on Democratic primaries, reshaping races while keeping their policy agendas largely out of public view.
By David Moore, The Nation
In Democratic primaries across the country, three special interests have been shelling out tens of millions to defeat progressives and help elect centrists who they think will back their policy agendas in Congress. The trifecta of spending groups represent the crypto and AI industries plus the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC, and in race after race they have been aligned to help the centrists push back against progressive insurgents.
The 2026 midterms are projected by AdImpact to be the most expensive ever for ad spending, outdoing even the last presidential cycle, and the three interests are fueling the surge. Super PACs working on behalf of crypto, AI, and AIPAC donors are the highest-spending groups on independent expenditures to influence voters this cycle—combining to spend more than $180 million so far, according to a review of Federal Election Commission records.
The super PAC largesse goes into media buys, digital ads, direct mail, text messages and more supporting favored candidates and attacking rivals—but the policy wish list of their funders remains mostly opaque to voters. In both Democratic and Republican races, ads from crypto, AI, and AIPAC-linked groups usually avoid mention of their donors’ core issues, whether decentralized finance, deregulating AI, or military aid to the government of Israel. To Democratic voters, the interest groups’ messages often blare that candidates will stand up to Trump; to Republicans, the AI super PACs tout President Trump’s endorsement. The three interests include top donors to Trump’s super PAC, such as OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his wife, Anna, who gave MAGA Inc. $25 million and the same amount to the AI super PAC Leading the Future.
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