Think Big PAC Uses SBF Cash to Bash NY-12's Bores

Sam Bankman-Fried's political money — the stuff that bought goodwill from senators and state assembly members before FTX imploded — is still doing damage three years later. This time the target is Alex Bores, a New York state assemblymember running for the NY-12 congressional seat, and the weapon is a mailer distributed by Think Big PAC that dredges up more than $100,000 in SBF-network donations to remind Democratic primary voters exactly who once had Bores' back.

What Is Think Big PAC Doing in NY-12?

Think Big PAC is a political action committee backed by donors aligned with pro-technology and artificial intelligence policy — the kind of group that runs hard against candidates perceived as hostile to innovation. Their latest mailer, dropped into voters' hands in Manhattan's 12th Congressional District, makes a pointed claim: that Bankman-Fried's political allies 'are bankrolling Bores for Congress.' The group urges voters to 'do better than Bores.'

That framing is deliberate. Bores recently introduced Alex Bores New York congressional candidate legislation in the state assembly that would impose guardrails on advanced AI systems — a direct challenge to the kind of unregulated AI development that donors backing Think Big tend to prefer. So this isn't just a PAC recycling an embarrassing fundraising connection for kicks. They're using SBF's collapsed legacy to kneecap a lawmaker who wants to regulate the industry their donors profit from. Call it political judo. Call it cynical. It's both.

The PAC has reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars targeting Bores across television, digital, and now direct mail — a sustained blitz that goes well beyond what you'd expect for a down-ballot state assembly race turned congressional run. Think Big has also run Democratic primary operations in Ohio, which tells you this is a national strategy, not a local dispute.

For someone who's railed against deep fake AI, candidate Bores doesn't seem to have trouble creating his own reality. He raked in over $100,000 from Sam Bankman-Fried's sordid political network but refuses to acknowledge the connection.

SBF's Long Tail: Still Poisoning Campaigns in 2026

Here's the thing about Sam Bankman-Fried political donations from the 2022 election cycle — they were everywhere. An analysis found that 196 members of Congress, more than one-third of the entire chamber, received campaign contributions from Bankman-Fried or executives at his failed exchange. That number made accountability nearly impossible because almost everyone was implicated to some degree. Hard to throw stones in a glass house that big.

But Bores was in a smaller, more exposed group. State elections filings confirm he was one of only two state-level candidates in New York to receive support from SBF-affiliated PAC money — the other being Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado. That specificity is what gives the attack real bite. It's harder to say 'everyone did it' when the list is exactly two people long and you're one of them.

Bankman-Fried, now serving a 25-year prison sentence after convictions on multiple fraud charges tied to FTX's collapse, spent lavishly across party lines in 2022 and styled himself as a pioneer of 'effective altruism' philanthropy. The money found its way into races ranging from Senate influence operations down to local assembly contests. Nobody predicted those same dollars would still be generating attack mailers four years later — but here we are. The SBF contamination radius apparently has no expiration date.

There's a darker irony buried in this story that deserves air. The very politicians who took SBF money and then voted on crypto regulation — or stayed silent when FTX customers lost billions — largely skated. But a state assemblymember who pushed AI safety legislation is getting hammered over the same donations, specifically because a well-funded PAC doesn't like his regulatory instincts. The attack is real, but the motivation behind it deserves scrutiny.

A Crowded Primary — and a Cease-and-Desist Letter

The NY-12 Democratic primary shaping up for 2026 is genuinely competitive. Rep. Jerry Nadler is stepping down, leaving open one of the most reliably Democratic seats in the country — a deep-blue Manhattan district that draws candidates with serious name recognition and serious money. Think Big PAC is spending heavily in a field that includes Jack Schlossberg, a member of the Kennedy family, and George Conway, the Republican-turned-Trump-critic attorney who has since repositioned himself firmly in Democratic political circles. That's the competition Bores is up against even before the outside spending starts.

Bores' team isn't taking the attacks quietly. Earlier Think Big PAC television and digital spots targeting Bores — specifically his past employment at Palantir, the data analytics and defense contracting company — prompted his campaign to send a formal cease-and-desist letter. The letter accused the PAC of making 'false and defamatory statements.' Whether that legal warning had any effect is unclear. The mailers kept coming anyway.

Bores' campaign had not responded to requests for comment at the time of reporting. That silence is notable given the volume of attacks — and it may itself become ammunition for the next round. In a race this crowded, quiet is a luxury candidates rarely get to keep.