A Kennedy, Kellyanne Conway’s ex-husband and a former Palantir data scientist debated AI regulation. Welcome to the Manhattan primary

But it was Alex Bores — a state lawmaker whose plans to regulate artificial intelligence has led to a flurry of industry spending both against and in support of him — who was the prime target.

Within moments, state Assembly Member Micah Lasher suggested Bores would be beholden to the big tech players who support his campaign.

“Alex only wants to tell you half the story, about one AI company that’s spending millions to defeat him, and that’s bad,” Lasher said. “But he’s not telling you the story about Anthropic, which is spending a million dollars to elect him, or a crypto billionaire who is spending $3.5 million to send him to Congress,” Lasher continued.

Soon after, Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, made a similar claim, arguing that Bores’ proposed artificial intelligence regulation “is a dream come true” for tech companies because it would give them too much control.

Bores responded: “With friends like these, who needs Republicans?”

“The Trump disinformation is coming from inside the party,” said Bores, a former data scientist at the tech firm Palantir who says he quit after it signed a deal to help the first Trump administration with immigration enforcement.

The debate, hosted by local cable channel PIX11, came with just weeks to go before the June 23 primary for the District 12 congressional seat soon to vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler. The district includes the upscale neighborhoods bordering Central Park and Times Square in Midtown Manhattan. It is considered safely Democratic, with the Democratic primary regarded as the race’s deciding contest.

Nadler’s retirement announcement resulted in a wave of Democrats launching campaigns, though the ranks of challengers have somewhat thinned.

Nadler has endorsed Lasher, a former staffer who has held several behind-the-scenes posts in New York government before becoming a lawmaker in the state Assembly.

Schlossberg, whose zany social media antics and Kennedy lineage brought national eyes to the race, has cast himself as an fresh face to a party searching for stars during Trump’s second term.

George Conway, who was once married to former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway before becoming a leading antagonist of the president, is running a campaign centered on removing Trump from office.

Bores entered the race without the fanfare of a Kennedy or a Conway but has since become a major player after an artificial intelligence-aligned group started spending to hobble his campaign. The spending has seemed to elevate his campaign, rather than damage him, helping Bores frame himself as the candidate who wants to regulate a technology that has unnerved many Americans worried about impacts such as job losses.

Throughout the debate, Bores, who sponsored state legislation to require major AI developers to report dangerous incidents to the state, fended off attacks.

After one tense exchange, he moved to respond but was cut short so the broadcast could take a commercial break. Three of the five commercials were about Bores, a signal of the glut of spending in the race.

The first ad, paid for by the AI-backed Think Big PAC, claimed Bores was “bought and sold” by corporate interests. The following two ads were supportive of Bores, with one featuring a robotic voice that identified itself as “the AI super PAC funded by Trump’s megadonors designed to destroy Alex Bores,” and the other casting Bores as a champion of the working class.

“You’ve seen tonight that I’m nothing like the incessant text and mailers and TV ads that are being sent out to demonize me. But I am terrifying to Trump’s megadonors and apparently to my opponents as well,” Bores said when the debate resumed.

Conway, meanwhile, lamented the combative nature of the night.

“What we saw here tonight was something that Democrats sometimes do a little too well, which was a circular, or really a triangular firing squad, and I think that’s a shame,” he said.