WASHINGTON – A handful of tech tycoons have poured nearly $100 million into congressional races nationwide this year, including several in Arizona.

The money has flowed 8-1 to Republicans over Democrats, a Cronkite News analysis shows.

In Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, political action committees backed by leading investors in artificial intelligence and data centers have spent heavily trying to elect Republican Jay Feely, a former NFL player who faces Democrat Amish Shah, an emergency room physician.

Since June, these PACs have spent about $1.1 million to promote Feely’s bid for office — more than twice as much support as Shah has gotten from a group that backs tighter regulation of AI.

Of that, $482,400 came from trillionaire Elon Musk’s America PAC, which has spent $60 million in House and Senate races in 17 states, according to Federal Election Commission filings.

Another super PAC called American Mission spent $616,400 to help Feely in June, ahead of the July 21 primary. 

That super PAC received $22.5 million – nearly all of its funding — from yet another super PAC called Leading the Future backed by OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and billionaire Silicon Valley investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. 

Together, that trio of megadonors, plus Brockman’s wife, Anna, put $76 million into the PAC, leaving donors who want to tighten regulation on AI vastly overmatched.

Guardrails Alliance, which supports such regulation, put $412,500 into digital ads attacking Feely in early October. 

The group announced plans on Oct. 7 to defend Shah and two House candidates in Montana and California targeted by Leading the Future.

Nationwide, Leading the Future spent $34.7 million in congressional races through the end of September via American Mission and another super PAC called Think Big. About two-thirds of that has been on behalf of Republicans.

In a recent debate hosted by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, an Arizona voter education group, Feely said Arizona should welcome data centers. He also voiced his enthusiasm for the industry in an Aug. 4 interview on the Sean Spicer Show.

“We are in a race with China to win the AI generation,” he said on the conservative talk show. “We have to win it.”

Shah, by contrast, has emphasized public concerns about the industry.

“AI is coming at us quick, and we’re going to need data centers,” he said during the Citizens Clean Elections Commission debate Oct. 7. “I just don’t want them in CD-1.”

Feely and Shah are vying to replace Rep. David Schweikert, R-Fountain Hills, who gave up the seat after eight terms to run for governor, losing the GOP primary to Rep. Andy Biggs of Gilbert.

The district is viewed as a toss-up. Both parties have invested heavily as they fight for control of the House.

“This is one of the most competitive races in the country,” said Guardrails Alliance political director Charlie Blaettler. “We think people should know who’s supporting Jay Feely and his connections to the AI industry.”

Shah has outraised Feely $5 million to $3.4 million, so the outside spending is fairly significant compared to the candidates’ own campaign accounts. 

Nationwide, Leading the Future, its affiliates and America PAC spent $94.7 million through Sept. 30 on behalf of House and Senate candidates, with all but $10.3 million benefiting Republicans, FEC records show.

Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to influence federal elections through independent expenditures. They cannot contribute directly to a candidate.

In the state’s other hotly contested congressional race, Musk’s America PAC has spent over $400,000 on behalf of two-term Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Tucson Republican.

Democrat JoAnna Mendoza has outraised the incumbent $10.8 million to $7.5 million, according to their latest campaign disclosures. 

Only 15 House candidates nationwide have raised more than Mendoza in 2026, according to the FEC.

One of them is two-term Rep. Eli Crane, R-Oro Valley, whose $11.5 million haul is more than twice as much as Democratic challenger Jonathan Nez has raised. 

Crane ranks 14th on the list of top House fundraisers.

Nez attacked Crane Oct. 16 for being “bankrolled by water-guzzling data center elites,” though only about $35,000 Crane collected has come from donors associated with that industry, according to the Nez campaign.

Think Big — one of the conduits for Leading the Future expenditures — has spent almost $600,000 helping Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Phoenix, who is seeking a fifth term in a solidly Democratic district. He faces Republican Zuhdi Jasser.

Guardrails Alliance calls money from AI interests “toxic,” citing polling it commissioned that found that 75% of voters in Iowa, Michigan and Ohio say they would be less likely to support a candidate backed by the AI industry. 

“People do not want to support candidates who are backed by ‘Big AI’ money,” Blaettler said.

Apart from its role as an issue in campaigns, and a source of funding, AI has become a factor as candidates and outside groups turn to AI to microtarget voters and to generate images, memes and even entire ads.

“These tools can help campaigns reach voters more effectively, but they also raise concerns about privacy, accuracy, and the potential influence of AI-generated content on elections,” said Gabby Ehmann, state chair of the Arizona Teenage Republicans, a conservative advocacy organization. 

She echoed Guardrails’ assertion that support from the AI industry turns off voters. 

“They’re tired of all the advertisers — everything AI does. People are tired of it,” Ehmann said.

Max Fose, board member of the Grand Canyon Institute, an Arizona think tank, and a longtime Arizona political strategist, agreed that concerns about data centers are motivating voters in the midterms.

“AI-backed PACs may have significant financial resources, but voters still want answers about the long-term costs of expanding this industry in Arizona,” he said.

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.