A political action committee with ties to major tech and cryptocurrency donors is raising the specter of disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to target New York congressional candidate Alex Bores as the state lawmaker faces a crowded Democratic field.
A sharply worded mailer distributed by Think Big PAC told voters that the Democratic primary candidate for New York’s 12th Congressional District once raised more than $100,000 in support from the former head of the failed global exchange, and alleged that “Bankman-Fried’s friends are bankrolling Bores for Congress.” He also criticizes Bores’ campaign financing and positions him as out of step with voters, urging voters to “do better than Bores.”
The attack comes as Bores competes in a high-profile primary that has attracted several prominent Democratic contenders, including Jack Schlossberg, a member of the Kennedy family, and other well-connected figures such as George Conway. The race to succeed Rep. Jerry Nadler in Manhattan’s deep blue district is expected to be one of the most closely watched primaries of the 2026 cycle.
“For someone who has criticized deeply fake AI, candidate Bores appears to have no problem creating his own reality. He raised over $100,000 from Sam-Bankman Fried’s seedy political network, but refuses to acknowledge the connection,” a spokesperson for Think Big PAC, which confirmed the amounts through state election filings, told CoinDesk. “Bores is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own set of facts about the role the SBF has played in financing his political career.”
Think Big PAC says it supports candidates aligned with pro-technology policies and opposes those considered hostile to artificial intelligence innovation. The group has already deployed spending to influence the Democratic primaries in Ohio.
Bores, a first-term assemblyman representing parts of Manhattan, recently drew attention for introducing legislation focused on AI safety and accountability at the state level. The bill seeks to impose barriers to advanced artificial intelligence systems, and that legislative push may have made it a target.
The mailer focuses on political spending linked to Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of fraud charges related to the collapse of FTX. In the 2022 cycle, Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives were among the largest political donors in American politics, supporting candidates across the political spectrum. A CoinDesk analysis found that 196 members of Congress (more than a third) received campaign support from Bankman-Fried or affiliated executives during that period. But Bores was unusual as one of only two statewide candidates in New York to receive help from the SBF-affiliated PAC (the other was Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado).
The Think Big PAC has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads targeting Bores, including previous television and digital ads attacking his previous work at Palantir. Bores’ campaign rejected those ads and sent a cease-and-desist letter accusing the PAC of making “false and defamatory statements” in its ads.
Bores’ campaign has not responded to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
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