AI PAC Haunts NY Primary with SBF's Ghost: When Your 2022 Bag Becomes 2026 Political Poison

A pro-tech super PAC is doing some political necromancy, summoning the ghost of Sam Bankman-Fried to spook a New York congressional hopeful. Think Big PAC is dropping mailers in the NY-12 Democratic primary, telling voters that candidate Alex Bores once bagged over $100,000 in support from the disgraced ex-FTX CEO's 2022 political network—proving that some bags, like political donations, can be a real drag to carry years later.

The mailer, which essentially reads "Bankman-Fried’s buddies are bankrolling Bores for Congress" and pleads with voters to "do better than Bores," is landing right as Bores scrambles in a crowded primary. He's up against Jack Schlossberg of the Kennedy dynasty and George Conway, all trying to win the deep-blue Manhattan seat being vacated by Rep. Jerry Nadler—a political battle royale where any skeleton in the closet is fair game.

"For someone who’s railed against deep fake AI, candidate Bores doesn’t seem to have trouble creating his own reality," a Think Big PAC spokesperson told CoinDesk, confirming the six-figure haul via state filings. The spokesperson added, "He raked in over $100,000 from Sam Bankman-Fried’s sordid political network but refuses to acknowledge the connection," suggesting Bores is doing his own version of selective on-chain history.

The PAC claims it supports pro-technology candidates and fights those it sees as hostile to AI innovation. Bores, a freshman assemblymember, recently introduced AI safety legislation in New York aiming to put guardrails on advanced systems—a move that apparently painted a target on his back for a PAC that seems to think regulation is just innovation with too many steps.

The mailer laser-focuses on spending linked to Bankman-Fried, who was convicted on fraud charges after FTX's spectacular collapse. Back in 2022, SBF and his FTX execs were among the nation's biggest political donors, spraying donations across the political spectrum like a degen aping into a memecoin presale. A CoinDesk analysis found 196 members of Congress—over one-third—got a taste of that support.

Bores was a statistical anomaly, being one of only two state-level New York candidates to get help from the SBF-affiliated PAC (the other being Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado). Think Big PAC has already dumped hundreds of thousands targeting Bores, including earlier ads going after his past gig at Palantir—because in politics, your entire career is basically an NFT that can be rug-pulled at any moment.

Bores' campaign previously sent a cease-and-desist letter over those Palantir ads, calling them "false and defamatory." As for these latest mailers resurrecting his 2022 SBF bag? His campaign hasn't responded to CoinDesk's request for comment, perhaps too busy checking the blockchain to see if those donations are somehow still liquid.