Leading the Future invests $2M in AI-friendly candidates for 2026 primaries

A super PAC built to champion AI-friendly politicians is dropping $2 million into Senate primaries across three states, deploying $1.5 million of that immediately. The group, called Leading the Future, is targeting races in Louisiana, Montana, and Oklahoma ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

If this playbook sounds familiar, it should. Leading the Future is explicitly modeled after Fairshake, the crypto industry’s super PAC that helped reshape Congress in 2024. Key advisors Josh Vlasto and Zac Moffatt, who helped orchestrate Fairshake’s influence campaigns, are also involved with Leading the Future.

The Fairshake template, now running on AI

Leading the Future launched in August 2025 with initial fundraising commitments exceeding $100 million. By early 2026, that figure had surpassed $125 million, with roughly $70 million in cash on hand at one point.

The donor list reads like a who’s-who of Silicon Valley power brokers. Andreessen Horowitz partners Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, OpenAI President Greg Brockman and his spouse Anna, Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale, legendary angel investor Ron Conway, and AI search startup Perplexity have each contributed $25 million or more.

The PAC’s core mission is straightforward: elect candidates who support federal oversight of AI rather than a fragmented patchwork of state-level regulations.

The federal preemption fight

The $2 million commitment to Louisiana, Montana, and Oklahoma Senate primaries is the opening salvo, not the full campaign. With $125 million-plus in commitments and tens of millions in available cash, Leading the Future has the resources to scale dramatically as the 2026 cycle heats up.

The PAC has already shown willingness to mobilize against candidates who support stricter local AI regulations. The core policy goal of federal preemption carries real economic implications: companies operating across state lines face enormous compliance costs when every jurisdiction writes its own rules.

Andreessen Horowitz, which operates one of the largest crypto venture funds in addition to its AI investments, has skin in both games. The firm’s partners aren’t writing $25 million checks out of abstract principle. They’re investing in a regulatory environment that protects their portfolio companies across both sectors.

By targeting primaries rather than general elections, and by operating in states with diverse political compositions, the PAC avoids being pigeonholed as a partisan actor. That’s a strategic choice borrowed directly from Fairshake, which supported candidates on both sides of the aisle.

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