The\u00a0PAC launched last year<\/a>\u00a0to advance the AI industry\u2019s agenda \u2014 to take away states\u2019 regulatory power and leave it to the federal government \u2014 with more than $100 million in contributions from OpenAI President Greg Brockman, tech venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale.<\/p>\n The PAC has endorsed Republican and Democratic lawmakers, including Liccardo. But Liccardo is the only lawmaker of the select pool who embodies Silicon Valley\u2019s often contradictory relationship with Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n \u201cSilicon Valley has always been the land of first adopters when it comes to tech,\u201d Tracy Rosenberg, executive director of surveillance watchdog group Oakland Privacy<\/a>, told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cIn my view Sam Liccardo has had a front row seat to the ways in which tech can be disruptive and harmful, if not properly regulated, so I would suggest he think about this (endorsement) a little more deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n Representatives for the Leading the Future PAC didn\u2019t respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Rosenberg\u2019s group is among the signatories of the coalition\u2019s\u00a0letter to Liccardo<\/a>, which also include the Tech Oversight Project and Common Cause. The letter questions what Leading the Future\u2019s endorsement says about Licardo\u2019s views on taking regulatory power away from states such as Colorado, which in 2024\u00a0passed a first of its kind law<\/a>\u00a0calling for guardrails from bias, discrimination and unethical decision-making by companies using AI.<\/p>\n Supporting \u2018sensible\u2019 regulation<\/p>\n Liccardo didn\u2019t respond when asked if he would reject Leading the Future\u2019s endorsement. A spokesperson for his office said they don\u2019t expect Liccardo to receive any money from the PAC but that the lawmaker supports AI\u2019s preemption from state regulation within reason.<\/p>\n \u201cSam believes that we need a sensible federal regulatory framework to provide transparency, child safety and agentic risk management as a precondition to federal preemption, and considers such an approach superior to the current patchwork of 50 conflicting and disjointed state regulatory schemes,\u201d the spokesperson told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight.<\/p>\n Campaign finance records indicate neither Liccardo nor an independent PAC supporting him, the Liccardo Victory Fund, have taken money from Leading the Future. In recent days, the organization claimed to have raised a total of\u00a0$140 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n As a federal representative of Santa Clara County, a longtime\u00a0liberal stronghold<\/a>, Liccardo has positioned himself as an adversary to Trump. He has\u00a0criticized the president<\/a>\u00a0over the Pentagon\u2019s dispute with Anthropic over the use of its AI technology, as well as last year\u2019s crusade to cut government waste under the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my view Sam Liccardo has had a front row seat to the ways in which tech can be disruptive and harmful, if not properly regulated, so I would suggest he think about this (endorsement) a little more deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n Tracy Rosenberg, Oakland Privacy<\/p>\n But Liccardo\u2019s district also spans the world\u2019s wealthiest ZIP codes and most powerful tech moguls \u2014 and he\u2019s called for a middle-of-the-road embrace of new technologies such as AI. Last year, he\u00a0spearheaded a congressional innovation agenda<\/a>\u00a0on AI, online privacy and responsible governance.<\/p>\n In recent months, Liccardo has voiced anxiety about frontier AI models advancing at a pace faster than Congress can regulate them. In March,\u00a0he announced<\/a>\u00a0he was exploring legislation to take regulating AI out of the hands of Congress and into an appointed, bipartisan oversight body that would set safety standards for the technology. If companies met those standards, they would earn exemption \u2014 or preemption \u2014 from more restrictive state laws.<\/p>\n It\u2019s somewhat in line with an executive order Trump signed in December, which\u00a0called for AI preemption<\/a>\u00a0and bemoaned certain states\u2019 AI regulatory laws as impeding innovation and economic prosperity. While Liccardo has framed his proposal as an alternative to Trump\u2019s efforts, the coalition isn\u2019t onboard either way.<\/p>\n \u201cEfforts to preempt state laws would strip away safeguards for children, creators, and consumers \u2014 concentrating regulatory authority in Trump\u2019s hands while leaving the public with few protections,\u201d the watchdog coalition\u2019s letter to Liccardo and other lawmakers reads.<\/p>\n Who deregulation favors<\/p>\n Rosenberg said AI preemption is deregulation that favors the AI industry\u2019s monied interests.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen the influence of tech funding and tech influence working in the Trump administration in very specific ways, which are not just about consistency in AI \u2014 but largely about deregulation, no regulation or the most minimal regulation possible,\u201d Rosenberg told San Jose Spotlight. \u201cWhen we look at these real life harms already happening to some degree right now, we should not be advocating for the most relaxed possible federal standard.\u201d<\/p>\n Those concerns stem from several high-profile controversies across the U.S. A federal judge in Minnesota in March\u00a0ordered UnitedHealth Group<\/a>\u00a0to hand over documents in a lawsuit accusing the insurance company of using AI to improperly deny its members care. There was also\u00a0anecdotal reporting<\/a>\u00a0last year on the role of AI chatbots in teenage deaths by suicide.<\/p>\n Congressman Ro Khanna \u2014 who has clashed with Silicon Valley tech moguls over his support for a proposed California billionaire tax \u2014 has not received Leading the Future\u2019s endorsement. But he also spoke in defense of Liccardo.<\/p>\n \u201cSam is principled, independent, thoughtful and has led on AI safety,\u201d Khanna told San Jos\u00e9 Spotlight. \u201cThe broader problem is money in politics. I don\u2019t take a dime of PAC money and I\u2019m leading a bill with Rep. Summer Lee to ban super PACs. Americans on the left and right are sick of special interests controlling our politics. We need to get PAC money out \u2014 whether that\u2019s tech, big pharma or anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n Contact Brandon Pho at\u00a0brandon@sanjosespotlight.com\u00a0or @brandonphooo on X.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776846916_440_LNM-20250616-SJSPOTLIGHTLOGO-01.jpg\")
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