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Leading the Future (LTF) is a $125 million super PAC network launched in August 2025 to elect candidates who oppose AI regulation and defeat those who support it. It is co-led by Josh Vlasto, a former spokesman for the crypto super PAC Fairshake, and Zac Moffatt, CEO of Republican consulting firm Targeted Victory. LTF entered 2026 with $70 million cash on hand and operates through affiliated super PACs (Think Big PAC in New York, American Mission PAC in Texas) and a dark-money 501(c)(4) arm called Build American AI.
Model Republic’s investigation found that 18 of a16z’s portfolio companies have been involved in deceptive practices, consumer exploitation, or legal violations — including AI companion apps linked to youth suicide.
LTF claims to support “responsible” AI governance. Vlasto and Moffatt’s launch statement frames the operation as being about “economic growth, national security, and global leadership.”
In practice, LTF attacks candidates who support mainstream, popular AI safety measures. In New York, LTF’s affiliate Think Big PAC ran ads against Alex Bores, a Democratic candidate who co-sponsored the RAISE Act, a state AI safety bill requiring risk assessments and safety disclosures that LTF opposes. The ads attacked Bores for his previous employment at Palantir. The biggest irony? Palantir is funding LTF.
LTF openly admits it’s using crypto’s super PAC playbook. It’s modeled on Fairshake, the crypto super PAC that spent $130 million in 2024 to unseat crypto skeptics like Sherrod Brown. The strategy: spend enough money on elections to scare lawmakers into opposing enforceable AI safeguards.
LTF’s attack ads don’t mention AI — because their actual position, that AI companies should face fewer rules, is deeply unpopular. Instead, they manufacture unrelated attacks against pro-regulation candidates.
Build American AI, LTF’s 501(c)(4), launched a $10 million campaign pushing a “uniform national AI policy” — code for federal preemption of state AI safety laws so that no state can protect its own residents.
Acutus, a site that launched in December billing itself as “expert-sourced journalism,” publishes articles that are overwhelmingly AI-generated, attack AI safety advocates by name, and echo LTF’s talking points. When the site contacts people for “interviews,” the reporter is an AI agent posing as a human. Public records tie the site back to a Republican PR firm connected to LTF’s consulting orbit.
Model Republic documented coordinated, undisclosed influencer campaigns against AI regulation bills, using MAGA influencers with ties to Influenceable, an influencer-for-hire agency. The campaigns targeted the OVERWATCH Act and Florida’s data center bill with identical talking points posted in 27-hour windows.
LTF says it supports “governance.” In practice, the super PAC is harming the governance process — distorting our elections with $125 million in election spending, candidate attacks, and shadow campaigns. Its funders include the companies whose products have been implicated in the deaths of children, the planning of mass shootings, and a 6,345% surge in AI-generated child sexual abuse material. The question is not whether AI needs regulation. The question is whether LTF’s attempts to buy the tech industry a free pass on AI regulation will be successful.