A political action committee with ties to major tech and crypto 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 heavily worded mailer distributed by Think Big PAC told voters that the Democratic primary candidate for New York’s 12th Congressional District had already received more than $100,000 in support from the former head of the bankrupt global stock exchange, and alleged that “Bankman-Fried’s cronies 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 participates in a high-profile primary that has attracted several high-profile Democratic candidates, 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 railing against fake AI, candidate Bores doesn’t seem to have any trouble creating his own reality. He has raised over $100,000 from Sam-Bankman Fried’s sleazy political network but refuses to acknowledge the connection,” a spokesperson for Think Big PAC told CoinDesk, which confirmed the amounts through state election filings. “Bores is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts about the role the SBF played in financing his political career.”
Think Big PAC says it supports candidates aligned with pro-technology policies and opposes those seen as hostile to artificial intelligence innovation. The group has already deployed spending to influence Democratic primaries in Ohio.
Bores, a first-term assemblyman representing parts of Manhattan, recently drew attention to introducing legislation focused on artificial intelligence safety and accountability at the state level. The bill aims to impose guardrails on advanced AI systems, and this legislative push may have made it a target.
The mailer focuses on political spending related to Bankman-Fried, who was convicted of fraud related to the collapse of FTX. During 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, or more than a third, received campaign support from Bankman-Fried or affiliated leaders during this period. But Bores was unusual because he was one of only two state-level candidates in New York to receive support from the SBF-affiliated PAC (the other being Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado).
The Think Big PAC has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads targeting Bores, including past TV and digital spots attacking his past work at Palantir. Bores’ campaign pushed back on those ads, sending a cease-and-desist letter accusing the PAC of making “false and defamatory statements” in its ads.
Bores’ campaign did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.
Read more: Congressional FTX Problem: 1 in 3 Members Received Money from Crypto Exchange Bosses
