In the AI political universe, Zac Moffatt and Josh Vlasto are at the helm of the Death Star.
As the top political operatives at Leading the Future, they oversee a network of pro-AI industry super PACs and nonprofits that friends and foes alike describe as an aggressive, well-funded machine attempting to obliterate their opponents much like the Star Wars superweapon.
Their goal: to defeat candidates who support the strictest AI regulations and champion those who want to unleash the development of the industry. The PAC launched with over $100 million in the bank from some of Silicon Valley’s biggest names, including $25 million checks from a16z’s co-founder Marc Andreessen and OpenAI’s president Greg Brockman.
Moffatt and Vlasto are little known to the public, but they’re familiar figures in Washington and the world of political campaigns. They have decades of experience on the political battlefield and bring bipartisan bona fides; Moffatt’s a Republican, Vlasto’s a Democrat. And they’re now guiding one of the biggest pots of money flowing into the midterms. Andreessen Horowitz, Marc Andreessen’s venture capital firm, is
the biggest known donor in midterm politics so far this cycle, and its single largest chunk of cash has been directed to Leading the Future.
How they choose to spend their mountain of money in the coming months and beyond is likely to have a major impact on the makeup of American government — and will determine how lawmakers grapple with a technology that has the potential to transform society and our way of life.
Their record so far is formidable.
Leading the Future’s political arms — American Mission, which has operated in Republican primaries, and Think Big, which has operated in Democratic ones — have sent money to 30 candidates, and only one of their picks has lost so far. They’ve spent almost $25 million and still have over $30 million in cash on hand, according to an FEC filing through June 30. Their latest primary victories came Tuesday, when their preferred candidates won House GOP and Democratic primary races in Arizona.
Their strategy appears to include both carrots and sticks. Sometimes they wade into races with modest sums of money in a bid to build a bench of friendly lawmakers; but they’ve also signaled that they’ve got a bazooka ready to deploy against adversaries where needed.
