Guardrails Alliance

On May 4, 2026, Guardrails Alliance filed a statement of organization with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC), registering as an independent expenditure-only super PAC not authorized by any candidate, with committee ID C00949487 and a registered address at a post office box in Washington, D.C.⁠[1][2]

On June 18, 2026, Democratic operatives Shaunna Thomas and Leah Hunt-Hendrix publicly launched Guardrails Alliance, with backing from tech employees, labor unions, and other groups. The organization positions itself as a populist political movement that runs on small donations from people in the trenches of the AI industry; at launch it had about $5 million at its disposal and planned to raise $15 million this election cycle, far less than Leading the Future, which has more than $100 million from tech figures such as OpenAI president Greg Brockman.⁠[3][3][3][3]

Its funders include the American Association of University Professors, the American Federation of Teachers, Movement Voter Project, UltraViolet Action, the Working Families Party, and individual donors including current and former tech workers. Guardrails Action, a 501(c)(4) organization launched alongside the committee, lobbies against the AI industry.⁠[4][4]

Thomas said people still have the power to stop the “autocratic takeover” of the Trump administration and the tech sector; she said the organization does not intend to match Leading the Future dollar for dollar, but to be a “political home” for people concerned about the anti-regulation AI tech sector manipulating elections.⁠[3][3][3]

On the day of its launch, the committee rolled out its first ad buy of the election cycle, spending $250,000 on a pair of videos supporting New York State Assemblymember Alex BoresAlex BoresAlex Bores is an American Democratic politician, a member of the New York State Assembly, and a former software engineer. He sponsored New York’s frontier AI safety law, the RAISE Act, in the state Assembly; while running in 2026 for the House seat in New York’s 12th congressional district, he became the first target of Leading the Future, an AI industry super PAC, and lost the Democratic primary that June.Open the full entry, a candidate in the Democratic primary for New York’s 12th congressional district. Bores wrote and passed New York’s AI safety law, the RAISE Act, and was Leading the Future’s first target. The independent expenditures supporting Bores reported to the FEC were all first disseminated on June 18, with Middle Seat Consulting LLC as the payee, paid in four installments from June 3 to 17 totaling $284,974.94; the 24-hour report filed that day declared an estimated $285,000.⁠[4][3][4][4][4][3][5][5][5][5][5][6]

In the June 23 primary, Bores received 37,637 votes, losing to Micah C. Lasher, who received 41,940 votes.⁠[7][7][7]

The first quarterly report covered May 4 to June 30, 2026: the committee took in $741,777.63 in total receipts, including $706,777.62 in individual contributions; it made $284,974.94 in independent expenditures and had $397,344.09 in cash on hand at the end of the period. The affiliated nonprofit Guardrails Action, Inc. provided in-kind contributions in the form of staff time. On June 30, an individual whose occupation was listed as OpenAI research engineer contributed $200,000; as of mid-July 2026, seven current OpenAI employees and one former employee had together donated more than $215,000 to the committee.⁠[1][1][1][1][5][5][5][8]

On August 31, 2026, in the primary for Massachusetts’s 6th congressional district, the committee placed an aerial ad opposing Daniel Koh, with an estimated expenditure of $35,000.⁠[9]

On October 7, 2026, Guardrails Alliance announced it would spend $1.2 million opposing three House candidates backed by Leading the Future, its first general-election ad buys: Republican Aaron Flint in Montana’s 1st District, Republican Jay Feely in Arizona’s 1st District, and Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who faces democratic socialist Angela Gonzales-Torres in California’s 34th District. The money goes toward digital ads, 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 ads, and streaming TV ads. The 48-hour report the committee filed with the FEC the next day listed three estimated expenditures of $412,500, $412,000, and $412,500.⁠[10][10][10][10][10][10][11][11][11]

On the same day, the affiliated nonprofit Guardrails Action led nearly 40 labor, progressive, faith, and AI safety groups in a letter to Congress setting out demands for AI legislation: independent, transparent government oversight with real enforcement power, and ensuring that AI models do not make final decisions such as denying people health care or benefits, firing or disciplining workers, or deploying weapons; it warned that any bill crossing their red lines would face “active, mobilized opposition.” Signatories included the American Federation of Teachers, the P Street Project, and Who Decides, a new group run by Alex Bores. Maya Handa, a senior adviser at Guardrails, said the principles are the coalition’s floor for AI legislation, and that the group has not yet taken a position on any specific bill.⁠[12][12][12][12][12][12][12][12]

The organization describes itself as made up of workers, organizers, policy experts, and everyday people, and says it is “not anti-technology”; its mission has three parts: tracking and exposing the donor networks funding deregulation, supporting candidates at every level who will pass AI safety rules, and building a grassroots coalition of workers, parents, and advocates.⁠[13][13][13][13][13]

Guardrails Alliance has criticized Leading the Future for being funded by AI industry players; Leading the Future says it supports federal regulation and, as of October 2026, had raised more than $140 million. Guardrails has also launched a petition calling on every Democratic member of Congress to publicly reject Leading the Future’s endorsement and money.⁠[10][10][14]

Guardrails Alliance: Official website: https://www.guardrailsalliance.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

X: Public account: https://x.com/GuardrailsNow (opens in a new window)⁠[14]