Public First Action
501(c)(4) given 40 million dollars by Anthropic in 2026, linked to the Public First super PAC funded by Anthropic staff, which passes money to committees backing Alex Bores and other candidates.
Public First Action Inc. is a nonprofit political group in Washington, D.C., at 1930 18th Street NW, which, with a super PAC called Public First and two further political action committees, forms a group of committees spending on candidates in the 2026 elections.12 On February 12, 2026, Anthropic announced that it was "contributing $20 million to Public First Action, a new bipartisan 501(c)(4) that will support public education about AI, promote safeguards, and ensure America leads the AI race." The organization, it wrote, was "founded and led both by Republican and Democratic strategists." Anthropic gave as the reason that "vast resources have flowed to political organizations that oppose these efforts," and listed among the policies the group would pursue "opposing preemption of state laws unless Congress enacts stronger safeguards" and "smart export controls on AI chips."3 On July 21, 2026, Anthropic announced "an additional $20 million to Public First Action, bringing our total support to $40 million," describing it as "a nonpartisan organization that educates the public about AI" and stating that both donations "cannot be used to influence the election of any candidate for federal, state, or local office."4
Public First Action Inc. first filed with the Federal Election Commission on March 10, 2026, as a filer of electioneering communications, under identifier C30003586.1 No return for it appeared in ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer by September 2026.5
The Public First Super PAC
Public First (FEC identifier C00930503), an independent-expenditure-only committee registered on December 12, 2025, with M'liss Hadley as treasurer, lists the Defending Our Values PAC as an affiliated committee. It reported 3,910,450 dollars in contributions and 4,416,899.94 dollars in disbursements. Its itemized donors were ten:2
- Dario Amodei, chief executive of Anthropic, 1,000,000 dollars on May 4, 2026.
- Public First Action Inc., 1,000,000 dollars on February 24, 2026.
- Peter Lofgren, member of technical staff at Anthropic, 999,900 dollars on June 8, 2026.
- Shauna Kravec, member of technical staff at Anthropic, 500,000 dollars on June 11, 2026.
- Michael Cohen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, 500,000 dollars on January 8, 2026.
- Jan Leike, member of technical staff at Anthropic, 400,000 dollars on June 8, 2026.
- Kate Woolverton, software engineer at Google DeepMind, 250,000 dollars on June 10, 2026.
- Nicholas Joseph, member of technical staff at Anthropic, 250,000 dollars on June 10, 2026.
- Adam Jermyn, research scientist at Anthropic, 5,000 dollars on June 22, 2026.
- Dillon Bowen, member of technical staff at OpenAI, 5,000 dollars on June 13, 2026.
Lofgren, Leike, Jermyn, Woolverton and Bowen also gave 5,000-dollar contributions to the political action committee of Americans for Responsible Innovation.6
The super PAC passed most of its money to the Jobs and Democracy PAC, in transfers that included 500,000 dollars on March 4, 750,000 dollars on May 22, 150,000 dollars on May 26, 400,000 dollars on June 3 and 2,000,000 dollars on June 12, 2026, and gave 300,000 dollars to the Defending Our Values PAC on February 11, 2026. Its vendors included The Money Wheel for compliance and accounting, Bryson Gillette, Minnow Co for communications and the law firm Steptoe.7
Jobs and Democracy PAC
The Jobs and Democracy PAC (FEC identifier C00928374) reported 20,725,723.37 dollars in receipts, 19,714,370.04 dollars in disbursements and 17,859,226.24 dollars in independent expenditures, placed through Bryson Gillette.8 Its principal beneficiary was Alex Bores, the New York Assembly member and sponsor of the state's RAISE Act, in the Democratic primary for New York's 12th congressional district: the FEC's aggregation by candidate shows 15,026,937.99 dollars spent supporting him, in 114 transactions.8 On February 20, 2026, TechCrunch reported that Public First Action was "spending $450,000 to boost Bores" in the race, where the super PAC Leading the Future "has already poured $1.1 million into ads attacking Bores."9 Leading the Future's contributions, 75.1 million dollars by July 2026, came from Andreessen Horowitz, Greg Brockman of OpenAI and Anna Brockman, and Perplexity.10 Think Big, a committee to which Leading the Future transferred 20 million dollars, spent 8,145,697.68 dollars opposing him.11
The Jobs and Democracy PAC also reported expenditures supporting Valerie Foushee in North Carolina, Brian Poindexter in Ohio, Bob Brooks in Pennsylvania and Colin Allred in Texas, and an expenditure opposing Jesse Jackson Jr. in Illinois, whom Think Big supported.811
Defending Our Values PAC
The Defending Our Values PAC (FEC identifier C00928390) reported 8,406,067.63 dollars in receipts, 7,430,648.98 dollars in disbursements and 7,064,884.59 dollars in independent expenditures. It supported Carlos De La Cruz Jr. and Alexandra Mealer in Texas, Celeste Maloy in Utah, Rhett Marques in Alabama, Kevin Hern in Oklahoma, Scott Singer in Florida, John Cowan in Georgia and Pete Ricketts in Nebraska, and opposed Daniel Franzese in Florida and Briscoe Cain in Texas.8 Hern was also supported by American Mission, one of the two committees to which Leading the Future transferred most of its money.1011
Relationships 13
Sources
- Federal Election Commission, committee C30003586, "Public First Action Inc.," retrieved September 23, 2026. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C30003586/ ↩
- Federal Election Commission, committee C00930503, "Public First," statement of organization, financial totals and itemized receipts (Schedule A), retrieved September 23, 2026. https://www.fec.gov/data/committee/C00930503/ ; https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?committee_id=C00930503 ↩
- Anthropic. "Anthropic is donating $20 million to Public First Action." February 12, 2026. https://www.anthropic.com/news/donate-public-first-action ↩
- Anthropic. "Anthropic is donating another $20 million to Public First Action." July 21, 2026. https://www.anthropic.com/news/donation-public-first-action ↩
- ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, search for "Public First Action," September 23, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/search?q=%22Public+First+Action%22 ↩
- Federal Election Commission, itemized receipts (Schedule A) for committee C00893883, "Americans for Responsible Innovation Ltd. Political Action Committee," retrieved September 23, 2026. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?committee_id=C00893883 ↩
- Federal Election Commission, itemized disbursements (Schedule B) for committee C00930503, 22 records, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?committee_id=C00930503 ↩
- Federal Election Commission, committees C00928374 ("Jobs and Democracy PAC") and C00928390 ("Defending Our Values PAC"), financial totals and independent expenditures (Schedule E), including the by-candidate aggregation for Alex Bores, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://www.fec.gov/data/independent-expenditures/?committee_id=C00928374 ; https://www.fec.gov/data/independent-expenditures/?committee_id=C00928390 ↩
- Bellan, Rebecca. "Anthropic-funded group backs candidate attacked by rival AI super PAC." TechCrunch, February 20, 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/20/anthropic-funded-group-backs-candidate-attacked-by-rival-ai-super-pac/ ↩
- Federal Election Commission, committee C00916114, "Leading the Future," itemized receipts (Schedule A) and disbursements (Schedule B), retrieved September 23, 2026. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?committee_id=C00916114 ; https://www.fec.gov/data/disbursements/?committee_id=C00916114 ↩
- Federal Election Commission, committees C00923417 ("Think Big") and C00916692 ("American Mission"), independent expenditures (Schedule E), including the by-candidate aggregation for Alex Bores, retrieved September 23, 2026. https://www.fec.gov/data/independent-expenditures/?committee_id=C00923417 ; https://www.fec.gov/data/independent-expenditures/?committee_id=C00916692 ↩
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