Nov 13, 2026, 4:11 PM

AI and crypto both declared victory, despite their objectively poor performance. Both have vowed to spend heavily in 2028, and are still hoping to intimidate lawmakers with the dominance they failed to demonstrate.

But before then, AI and crypto will both have to try to backtrack on their strong rightward turn over the past few years, lobbying a Democratic Congress. More on that pivot coming soon.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #USpolitics #USpol #CitationNeededNewsletter

The AI industry’s PACs managed to declare victory from both sides. Public First’s Carson called the results “a crushing blow to the AI industry’s anti-regulatory efforts”.11 A Leading the Future spokesperson, meanwhile, said their group was “proud that many of the pro-innovation champions we supported this cycle won on Tuesday”, a claim that, like Fairshake’s, depends largely on the 21 sure winners it backed in the general election. The spokesperson also promised a “multi-cycle effort”, warning that “2028 will show who actually cares about passing a national regulatory framework on AI and who wants to politicize an issue that’s extremely consequential to the future of our country.”16 That’s certainly a brazen statement from a super PAC network that spent $8.2 million trying to defeat a single primary candidate.

Crypto’s Fairshake struck a similar note. “Fairshake played a meaningful role in winning competitive races across the country in 2026 and we will do it again in 2028,” the PAC told Bloomberg17 — a characterization that’s again hard to square with my numbers above. “Newly elected and current members will have a choice: protect consumers and American jobs or fight progress,” it continued. “We will be watching and ‘28 is a new map.”

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