Alex Bores

Bores graduated with honors from Cornell University and received a master’s degree in computer science from the Georgia Institute of Technology.⁠[1]

Before entering politics, Bores worked in the software industry as an engineer and manager; his work included assisting the US Department of Justice and two Manhattan district attorneys in solving violent crimes in New York City, and building software for local governments’ COVID-19 relief programs. He worked at the data analytics company Palantir and quit in 2019 over the company’s work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).⁠[2][1][3][4]

In 2022, Bores was elected to the New York State Assembly, representing the 73rd District, an area including Murray Hill, Turtle Bay, Sutton Place, Midtown East, and the Upper East Side.⁠[2][1]

In his first term, the bills he passed included raising the maximum fine on telemarketers, ensuring that employees’ inventions remain their own intellectual property, requiring mopeds to be registered at the point of sale, and encouraging state agencies to adopt cloud computing; he also began the process of amending an 1846 provision of the state constitution to allow the creation of new judicial seats.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

On March 5, 2025, Bores introduced A6453 in the state Assembly, a bill relating to the training and use of frontier AI models, the Responsible AI Safety and Education Act (RAISE Act), with cosponsors including Micah Lasher; the companion bill in the state Senate, S6953, was introduced by Andrew Gounardes. On June 12, both chambers passed the bill.⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5][3]

Governor Kathy Hochul then rewrote much of the bill through chapter amendments, bringing it largely in line with California’s SB 53, after intense negotiations with sponsors Bores and Gounardes. On December 19, 2025, Hochul signed the law as Chapter 699 of 2025. The final version requires developers of the most advanced AI models to report critical safety incidents within 72 hours, imposes a $1 million fine for a first violation and $3 million for subsequent violations, and creates an oversight office within the state Department of Financial Services to assess frontier models; the version passed in June had provided for fines of up to $10 million for a first violation and up to $30 million for subsequent violations. Bores said New York had defeated last-ditch attempts by “AI oligarchs” to kill the bill and had raised the floor for AI safety legislation.⁠[3][3][3][3][5][3][3][3][3]

Bores ran for the House in New York’s 12th congressional district, seeking to succeed the retiring Jerry Nadler. In late 2025, Leading the Future released ads targeting him, making him the group’s first political target. By March 2026, its ads accused him of having made hundreds of thousands of dollars building technology for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Bores said the group had committed to spending at least $10 million against him, and said that he genuinely understands the technology and cannot be dismissed as someone who “doesn’t understand it.” As of mid-June 2026, Leading the Future had spent $7.6 million against him through a subsidiary.⁠[3][6][3][4][4][4][7]

Other outside groups supported him in the primary: Public First Action, backed by AnthropicAnthropicAnthropic is an artificial intelligence research and product company founded in 2021 that develops the Claude models, assistant, and tools such as Claude Code, and operates as a public benefit corporation. Dario Amodei and Daniela Amodei are its co-founders, and its research covers model safety, interpretability, and steerability.Open the full entry, had spent $450,000 for him as of March 2026; by mid-June, political groups that received donations from Anthropic had spent more than $10 million supporting him. The newly formed Guardrails AllianceGuardrails AllianceGuardrails Alliance is a US super PAC (independent expenditure-only) that supports legislative regulation of artificial intelligence, publicly launched by Shaunna Thomas and Leah Hunt-Hendrix in June 2026. It treats Leading the Future, a super PAC funded by the AI industry, as its main opponent, running ads in the 2026 midterm elections for candidates who favor regulation and opposing candidates backed by Leading the Future.Open the full entry launched two video ads supporting him on June 18, spending $250,000; the independent expenditures supporting him that the committee reported to the Federal Election Commission totaled $284,974.94. Bores’s campaign also put forward a national AI governance blueprint covering 8 issue areas and 43 recommendations.⁠[4][7][7][8][9][4]

In the June 23, 2026, Democratic primary, Bores received 37,637 votes and finished second, losing to Assemblymember Micah C. Lasher, who received 41,940 votes; Jack Kennedy Schlossberg, Nina Schwalbe, and George Conway received 11,719, 7,819, and 6,588 votes, respectively.⁠[10][10][10][10][10][10][2][2]

On October 7, 2026, a letter to Congress led by Guardrails Action and co-signed by nearly 40 labor, progressive, faith, and AI safety groups was made public; one of the signatories was Who Decides, a new group run by Bores.⁠[11][11][11]

New York State Assembly: Official page: https://nyassembly.gov/mem/Alex-Bores/ (opens in a new window).⁠[12]

Alex Bores for Congress: Official website: https://www.alexbores.nyc/ (opens in a new window).⁠[13]

X: Public account: https://x.com/AlexBores (opens in a new window)⁠[13]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@alexbores (opens in a new window)⁠[13]