Silicon Valley donations make Colorado Democratic primary one of state’s most expensive

Political groups funded by top tech executives have been homing in on one local race in Colorado, as the state’s Democratic primary vote gets under way on Tuesday. Democrat Manny Rutinel, who’s running in the competitive eighth congressional district for a seat in the House, has seen his campaign boosted with at least $2m in donations from committees led by the former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and crypto billionaire Chris Larsen.

Rutinel is a progressive candidate running against former state representative and centrist Democrat Shannon Bird. During his campaign, he has focused on his Latino heritage and centered his platform around affordability and regulating Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Technology and artificial intelligence are not topics he’s publicly waded into, but when he was a state representative, he supported two bills aimed at putting guardrails on AI, according to Axios. Bird, conversely, opposed a bill to regulate AI, saying it would restrain innovation in the state.

Political spending on Rutinel’s campaign has made it one of the most expensive races in Colorado, outpacing other district and Senate races. The two top Super Pacs funded by tech dollars, which contributed to Rutinel’s campaign, are Somos Pac and You Can Push Back.

Schmidt and his wife, Wendy, donated $2m to the Somos Pac, which supports Latino voter engagement, which then gave $1.3m to Rutinel’s campaign, according to Axios. You Can Push Back, which is entirely funded by the crypto mogul Larsen, donated nearly $1m to the Colorado lawmaker’s campaign. Rutinel also received millions in donations from Super Pacs focused on Latino candidates.

Another chunk of funding for Rutinel came from individual employees from top AI and tech firms, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Meta. Rutinel has received more than $265,000 from these donations, according to a campaign finance tracker created by the publication Transformer. Anthropic employees were the largest group of givers, with 57 people donating nearly $162,000 combined.

This race in Colorado serves as an example of a stark rift that is forming among big tech donors. One cohort is throwing money behind candidates seen as lenient on AI regulations, while the other is backing political hopefuls who indicate they will rein in the breakneck growth of the technology.

The donations to Rutinel’s campaign come after a showdown in a local congressional race in New York last week, where pro- and anti-AI groups spent a combined $24m to either oppose or support the Democratic candidate Alex Bores, a member of the state assembly who sponsored an AI safety bill. Similar scenarios played out during the primaries in North Carolina and California.

Rutinel’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.