Politico Magazine's Calder McHugh and Alec Hernandez recount how a scattered coalition of AI-safety advocates — led by Brad Carson, Jay Shooster and Rishi Bharwani — took on the tech industry's $100 million Leading the Future super PAC after the Senate rejected a federal preemption provision in July 2025. Backed by Anthropic's millions and buoyed by data-center backlash, pro-regulation groups outspent the industry $44.4 million to $27.9 million, won races for Manny Rutinel and Scott Wiener, and made AI a live issue for 2028.