The artificial intelligence industry is homing in on Ohio’s 7th congressional district race. Several super PACs with financial ties to Anthropic, the company behind the AI assistant Claude, have invested heavily in the House race, ramping up fundraising for both the Democratic and the Republican candidates.
One such PAC, Public First Action, was formed in 2025 as the brainchild of former Democratic Representative Brad Carson and Republican Representative Chris Stewart. Their aim, per the nonprofit’s own materials, is to advance efforts to regulate AI across government and to increase public education about the burgeoning industry.
Over the course of 2026, Anthropic donated $40 million to Public First Action. In a press release, Anthropic said the funds were exclusively for driving the nonprofit’s public education campaign and policy goals, specifying that the money “cannot be used to influence the election of any candidate for federal, state, or local office.”
Yet Public First Action’s approach in Ohio—in which it has decided to offer significant financial backing to both candidates—suggests that it might be more interested in shaping the House race itself.
Exactly why AI-backed money is funneling into the Ohio race boils down to a perfect confluence of factors across the state. Ohio has relatively cheap land, plentiful resources, and enough power plants to fuel the data centers required to support the AI industry’s seemingly imminent boom.
Some of the industry’s biggest players are already tuned into that fact, and are well on their way to maximizing the apparent opportunity. As of last month, Nvidia is reportedly in talks with OpenAI and the Japanese investment group Softbank to develop a $500 billion data center in southern Ohio. Amazon Web Services previously announced a $10 billion infrastructure investment in the state to expand its AI capabilities. Meta has already spent $1.5 billion on a data center in New Albany.
“Given what’s at stake, it’s not surprising at all that they want to sway the legislature,” David Bieri, an economist and associate professor at Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs who analyzes the costs of data center development, told The New Republic.
Anthropic has a specific angle on the national regulatory fight. The trillion-dollar company is in favor of states drafting their own AI regulation, and has spent an enormous sum of money opposing federal efforts to block regional constraints, lest that create a uniform national market. Anthropic has also argued that companies developing powerful AI models should face accountability requirements. In a statement released in July, Anthropic specified that it was willing to invest in candidates open to “sensible AI safeguards.”
Those parameters haven’t always fallen along party lines: The company has supported Democrats and Republicans who agree with its regulatory worldview, including Republican Tennessee gubernatorial hopeful Marsha Blackburn, who blocked a congressional effort to bar states from passing such laws.
Public First Action announced in July that it would donate $15 million to support a slate of Republicans across the country, including Max Miller, the representative for Ohio’s 7th district, who is currently drowning in scandals related to domestic violence accusations levied at him by his ex-wife.
Meanwhile, the group is tied to at least three other political action committees, one of which—Jobs and Democracy PAC—spent more than $512,000 on a pre-primary advertising campaign for Brian Poindexter, Miller’s Democratic challenger. That sum accounts for roughly 84 percent of all the contributions to his campaign, according to campaign finance data collected by the Federal Election Commission.
Miller, who was initially projected to dominate the race, had staked out a pro-AI position, championing protections for digital industries. In May, Miller co-sponsored the Deterring American AI Model Theft Act, legislation designed to prevent foreign encroachment on U.S. AI models, and introduced the Digital PARITY Act, which would adapt the U.S. tax code to “keep pace with the rapid growth of digital assets and modern financial technology,” according to Miller. He has also accepted thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the likes of Amazon, Oracle, Intel, Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon. Yet his district’s proximity to the epicenter of Ohio’s AI boom has changed his political opinions: In August, Miller announced his full support for Ohio House Bill 983, a local data-center accountability bill.
But the horrific allegations against Miller that have recently come to light have put his political future in jeopardy. Early last month, the House Ethics Committee announced it was opening an investigation into his alleged misconduct. Days prior, Miller was denounced by his ex-father-in-law, Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, who wrote in a post on X that the Donald Trump–backed Republican should “not serve in the House of Representatives.”
Miller also seems to have lost favor with his electorate, 55 percent of which voted for Trump during the 2024 election. As of publication, Poindexter’s odds of a November victory sit at 79 percent, while Miller has plunged to 22 percent, according to the private betting platform Polymarket.
It appears Public First Action has seen the writing on the wall. Last month, Miller’s name was unceremoniously stripped from the group’s online announcement. Public First Action did not respond to a request for comment about its decision.
Poindexter, a Brook Park council member, has framed himself as an untraditional congressional candidate. He has centered his experience as an ironworker in his campaign messaging, relentlessly promising to fight for Ohio’s working class and strip money out of politics. If he succeeds, Poindexter has the potential to influence AI regulations in Washington, but only time will tell if he will.
In an interview with Signal last month, Poindexter admitted he doesn’t know why the AI-affiliated PAC spent money on his race. Poindexter’s campaign manager, Thomas Dufour, told TNR that he had not made contact with Anthropic or its affiliated super PACs, and specified that none of Poindexter’s positions are influenced by campaign contributions.
“He believes that while AI has the potential to make transformational scientific breakthroughs, we need to balance that against the risks it poses—especially when it comes to workers and the safety of children,” Dufour said. “This is also an opportunity to set clear regulations around the construction and operation of data centers that put workers and our communities first, without jeopardizing our natural resources.
“That’s why he’s running for Congress in the first place, to break that cycle,” Dufour added.
A spokesperson for the Jobs and Democracy PAC, Anthony Rivera-Rodriguez, described Poindexter to Cleveland.com as “a champion for workers” as he sought to tie their respective missions together.
“Fundamentally, AI issues are worker issues,” Rivera-Rodriguez said. “As this rapidly evolving technology creates new risks for labor, we think Poindexter’s voice will be critical in the debate over how to stop AI from harming American workers.”
