Anthropic-Backed PAC Pours $500,000 Into Massachusetts Senate Race as AI Dominates Democratic Primary

Artificial intelligence has emerged as the defining issue of next Tuesday's Massachusetts Democratic Senate primary, with an Anthropic-backed nonprofit directing $500,000 to a PAC supporting Sen. Ed Markey as Rep. Seth Moulton attacks the incumbent over his grasp of the technology.

Federal Election Commission filings show Public First Action — a nonprofit backed by Anthropic, which has donated $20 million to the group — contributed $500,000 to Commonwealth Together, a political action committee supporting Markey.

Anthony Rivera-Rodriguez, a spokesperson for Public First Action, said the group is backing Markey because he "has been unequivocal in his support for regulating AI."

"In Congress he helped lead the 99 to 1 vote that stripped a moratorium on state AI regulation out of reconciliation. He has worked to beat back every version of preemption that has come back since, and he wrote legislation to stop the administration from stripping states of their regulatory authority," Rivera-Rodriguez said.

Markey, 80, is seeking a third full term in the Senate after nearly half a century representing Massachusetts in Congress. He has introduced what he calls the AI Accountability Agenda, which he says would ensure AI serves "the public interest, not pad Big Tech's profits."

Moulton, a six-term House member who is 47, has sought to frame the race around generational change — and found an opening when Markey said during a recent debate that he did not know whether he used AI on his personal electronic devices.

Moulton called the answer "why we need a new generation of leaders" and has converted the moment into advertising. He has simultaneously called for "federal AI regulations" while keeping AI companies on U.S. soil.

On the money side, Moulton's backers include Advance Progress, a supportive PAC bankrolled by major financial players like former Bain Capital co-chair Josh Bekenstein. Another AI-aligned PAC, Leading the Future — backed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz — has spent heavily in races across the country, though it has not yet entered the Massachusetts contest.

Public First Action's PACs have backed candidates across the country, reflecting a broader pattern in which AI companies and their affiliated political vehicles have become among the largest spenders in this election cycle.

Despite the advertising offensive, Markey holds a commanding lead in available polling. A University of New Hampshire survey released Tuesday showed him ahead of Moulton by 35 percentage points — 63% to 28%. Markey's endorsers include Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The senator has a track record of defeating well-funded Democratic challengers; he beat former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, a Kennedy family scion, in 2020.

The primary fight underscores how thoroughly AI policy has permeated down-ballot politics. The fight over AI development and its associated data center infrastructure has spilled into race after race this year, with companies and their affiliated groups placing large bets on candidates whose regulatory stances could shape the industry's operating environment for years to come.

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