As public fears mount over an AI doomsday , AI firms just scored a big election win in a very small state. In Delaware last night, Attorney General Kathy Jennings won her Democratic primary, easily trouncing two challengers. The two-term incumbent was backed by a $500,000 ad campaign paid for by a group affiliated with Public First Action, a political action network that has taken $40 million from the AI giant Anthropic since February and has aligned with many of the company’s policy positions.
Now Jennings is positioned to sign off on future corporate AI laws that could reverberate across the country. Public First Action’s political expenditures appear to be part of a wider battle between Anthropic and its competitor, OpenAI, as they try to push for each company’s preferred AI regulations.
Though Anthropic is known for backing AI safety regulations, it’s also worked to weaken key guardrails, such as an AI safety bill in California. And while it supports penalties for companies whose AI goes awry, it hasn’t backed “ pre-harm enforcement ” measures that could prevent the development of potentially rogue agents.
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Delaware might be small, but its presence is huge in the corporate world , since it’s home to more than 60 percent of all Fortune 500 companies. The state has long been favored by corporate America, with a court system tailored to business needs and a legislature predisposed to offer tax benefits and other incentives to keep corporations in the state .
That means the Delaware attorney general’s decisions on business matters are uniquely positioned to shape the legal landscape for AI. Nearly a year ago, Jennings signed off on OpenAI’s switch from a nonprofit to a for-profit company, despite warnings that the move would “eliminate essential safeguards.”
Jennings is likely to prevail in the general election, since Delaware hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office in more than a decade. If she does, she’ll oversee enforcement of one of the most restrictive AI laws in the country , set to go into effect next year and, potentially, the proposed rollout of an untested , human-free business structure called an Artificial Intelligence Company, designed to allow corporations to be run entirely by AI . A bill to approve that new structure has been steadily working its way through the Delaware legislature.
Progressives also won big in Delaware. Eight of the 13 candidates that the Working Families Party endorsed won Democratic nominations, including five candidates who ousted incumbent legislators in the state House and Senate. In one case, a progressive candidate running on affordability won despite having raised less than a fifth of what the incumbent spent.
Last year, all five of those defeated incumbents helped to pass a bill awarding Elon Musk the largest compensation package in history and shielding powerful corporate executives from scrutiny by their own shareholders and workers.
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The Delaware primaries mark the end of the primary season. Next time voters go to the polls will be on Nov. 3 for the general election.