Big Tech Has Become The 'Ubiquitous Villain' Of US 2026 Midterms

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Super political action committees (PACs)“funded by tech billionaires are among the top spenders in this election cycle,” The Guardian explained.“Leading the Future, formed by OpenAI president Greg Brockman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, has raised more than $75 million to back tech-friendly candidates. [SpaceX CEO] Elon Musk has sunk $366 million into Republican causes, more than he spent on the 2024 presidential election.”Much of the Big Tech money has been going toward Republican candidates this cycle, even though the industry has traditionally had close ties with elected Democrats.

Texas Democratic US Senate candidate James Talarico in recent days has been trying to turn Big Tech money being spent against him into an advantage, highlighting in particular the outsize role that Musk is playing funding the campaign of his Republican rival, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

After Musk on Wednesday used his platform X to declare that“there is something deeply wrong with Talarico,” the Texas Democrat quickly returned fire.

“There is something deeply wrong with a political system,” Talarico wrote,“that allows one trillionaire to buy his own personal US senator.”

A report published by The Atlantic on Monday examined how the tech industry's embrace of President Donald Trump during his second term has given Democrats an incentive to pummel the industry, particularly when polls show a bipartisan hostility to AI data centers.

In fact, Democratic strategists told The Atlantic that data centers have proven to be a top wedge issue capable of getting normally loyal GOP voters to think twice before voting for a Republican candidate.

“Trump and his anti-AI regulation posture is dragging the party to a politically suicidal place,” Democratic strategist Rob Flaherty told The Atlantic.“They are grabbing the wrong side of an 80–20 issue at exactly the wrong time.”