Americana

1. Unpopular science
2. Early 2028 trends
3. Bay State blues
4. Anti-Trump in ABQ
5. On offense in Tenn.
6. The Tenn. counter-message

Trump’s AI agenda faces a new kind of bipartisan fury

The AI industry’s new super PAC, flush with cash to defend AI’s growth as critical to countering China, picked its first political target this month — and missed.

New York state Assemblyman Alex Bores is working to break out of a crowded field in the Democratic primary to succeed Rep. Jerrold Nadler. He wasn’t even close to frontrunner status when the Leading the Future PAC went after him.

But becoming the first enemy of a $100 million pro-AI effort turned out to be a nice boost for the 35-year-old’s campaign. He was almost flattered that the industry would single out his RAISE Act, which requires new AI safety standards, among other changes.

“I appreciate that they’re being so direct,” Bores told Semafor. “They sound terrified that I will stand up to them on behalf of the people of this district, that I will be the biggest obstacle to their quest for unbridled control over the American worker, over our kids, over the environment. They’re right about that.”

This wasn’t the plan for Leading the Future, whose electoral plan aligns with Fairshake, the cryptocurrency PAC that Republicans thanked for beating Democrats last year. There’s one big difference between them: Fairshake was fighting for a product that only a small minority in the US owns, with fewer still getting rich off it. The AI industry is discovering populist anger that’s growing faster than many in both parties expected.

On the local level, Democrats and Republicans have already won votes by campaigning against AI, or at least for limits on its growth. President Donald Trump is on the industry’s side, pushing to stop state-level regulations that could slow it, but some of his more prominent MAGA allies see unrestrained AI as an obstacle to his promised “golden age.”

“President Trump’s AI policy is so unpopular because his primary adviser is a representative of Big Tech whose interests are fundamentally misaligned with the base,” said Michael Toscano, a senior fellow at the conservative Institute for Family Studies.

He was referring to Trump tech adviser David Sacks, who warned on Monday that a “reversal” on AI investments could spur a recession.

“If President Trump wants AI policy that is embraced by his voters, he needs to hear the views of the pro-family and child-safety movement, religious Americans, and workers, who have deep concerns about the future of AI and valid policy ideas about what to do about it,” Toscano added.

A Sacks spokesperson did not return a request for comment.

New Hampshire primary polling contains early clues for both parties

The 2028 cycle is already starting in Washington: Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s criticism of right-wing antisemitism got covered as a play for the next Republican nomination, and the president’s hesitance about his vice president as the next nominee raised eyebrows.

This hasn’t trickled down to voters. Vice President JD Vance has a larger lead with Republican voters in this poll than Trump did four years ago; four years ago, it gave him just 43% against a rising Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wasn’t included as an option, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wasn’t included in the options for Democrats. That means there’s no prominent candidate from the Democratic Party’s left wing.

Without one, this poll showed progressive voters getting behind Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who share some views with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., but are not as left-leaning. In other words, the last Democratic primary’s divisions aren’t playing out this time.

Massachusetts Senate primary tests Democratic push for younger candidates

Rep. Seth Moulton’s challenge to Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey is about many things, but it’s mostly about age. “I just don’t believe Senator Markey should be running for another six-year term at 80 years old,” Moulton said in his launch video.

Nearly half of likely primary voters agree with him here; just 54% of Democrats said that Markey can definitely serve another full term. The senator’s progressive allies have gotten behind him, but if he falters, there will be temptation to recruit a backup candidate who leans more left than Moulton.

Everybody agrees on who that is: Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who’s represented the state’s most liberal district since she toppled a Boomer incumbent in 2018. She scored a 74% favorable rating here, 19 percentage points higher than Markey and 40 percentage points higher than Moulton; some progressives have not forgiven him for saying that his party should revisit its stance on transgender athletes’ participation in sports, even if he’s tried to pivot since.

Jay Clayton, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, will join Semafor Business: The Ledger for a timely conversation about how today’s market shifts are reshaping finance and regulation.

As the global financial system enters a new era, long-familiar tools like index funds and ETFs have become commoditized, creating space for newer forms of financial engineering. Semafor’s Liz Hoffman will convene leaders from across the industry to examine the innovations that are likely to reshape the landscape, and which may fade over time.

Dec 2 | New York City | Request Invitation

Albuquerque mayor’s race features a Democrat on the back foot

Tim Keller, Albuquerque’s Democratic mayor, is seeking a third term, after his second saw a post-pandemic spike in crime and homelessness that weakened local incumbents. He got a career-low 36% in the first round of the election, on Nov. 4. But most voters who opposed Keller voted for another Democrat, not Republican candidate Darren White. In this ad, Keller warns that White, a former Bernalillo County sheriff, would “let Donald Trump round up innocent people,” as previewed by the surges of military and Border Patrol personnel in other cities. Trump lost nearly every precinct in the city last year.

Democrat Behn’s podcast provides material to boost her opponent

Republicans got the candidate the White House wanted in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. Matt Van Epps’ own campaign ads have stayed biographical and positive; conservative PACs have unloaded their damaging material on Democrat Aftyn Behn, including in this new ad. Some of it comes from a progressive podcast Behn hosted before running for office. She said on the air after George Floyd’s murder by law enforcement that “rioting is a way for people to express themselves.” More recently, in May, she recorded herself “bullying” ICE agents.

Behn tries to draw a contrast without saying ‘Trump’

The Democrat’s own campaign closed out early voting with a positive spot that doesn’t mention her party at all. Like Van Epps, Behn promises to “lower costs,” but she puts some of the blame on Trump’s tariffs. She doesn’t mention the president directly. Behn’s campaign is testing a persuasion theory shared among progressive strategists: People-versus-the-powerful messaging can move the electorate, even if the Republican candidate is attacking Democrats’ position on social issues.

• six days until the special election in Tennessee’s 7th congressional district
• 13 days until runoff elections in Miami and Albuquerque
• 66 days until the runoff for Texas’s 18th congressional district
• 342 days until the 2026 midterm elections

Injustice, by Carol Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis, is the best book about the Justice Department’s exploding-cigar relationship with Trump. There’s a developing consensus among Democrats that Attorney General Merrick Garland moved too slowly to prosecute Trump, mistakenly thinking that the president was finished after Jan. 6, 2021. Injustice will build on that consensus. Pro-Trump conservatives won’t like how warmly the defeated prosecutors are portrayed, but readers on both sides will gain a deeper understanding of the situation.