AI PACs Have Dumped Nearly $1 Million Into an Obscure Senate Race
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AI-related super PACs and technology groups have directed nearly $1 million toward incumbent Republican Senator Mike Rounds’s reelection campaign in South Dakota, a reliably Republican and largely noncompetitive race. Outside groups have spent about $600,000 on Rounds’s behalf, most of it through Defend American Jobs, which receives funding from a super PAC financed by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Employees and political committees affiliated with Anthropic and other technology companies, including Google and Microsoft, have contributed roughly $215,000 more. The spending exceeds the amount Rounds has raised from South Dakota donors and reflects the technology industry’s effort to support lawmakers who may influence upcoming debates over AI regulation and data centers. Rounds is leading independent candidate Brian Beng in recent polling after Democrat Julian Beaudion withdrew, while another AI-linked super PAC has announced a separate $2 million effort for supportive Senate Republicans that includes Rounds. The race is also tied to South Dakota’s disputes over data-center water, energy, and tax costs, with Rounds supporting restrictions and a recent poll finding that seven in ten Americans oppose data-center development.
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