A Democrat running to pick up one of the party\u2019s top target House seats recently worked for two defense contractors looking to help the federal government use artificial intelligence for border surveillance and military projects.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cait Conley, a Special Operations combat veteran and former national security adviser under former President Joe Biden, is running in the crowded Democratic primary to challenge incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in New York\u2019s 17th Congressional District. Her candidate financial disclosures<\/a> show that she earned more than $80,000 between January 2024 and July 2025 from two companies, Primer and Hidden Level.<\/p>\n Both companies partner<\/a> with far-right billionaire Peter Thiel\u2019s surveillance tech firm Palantir<\/a> to help government agencies use AI. Both are military contractors; Hidden Level holds an active contract with the Department of War, and Primer\u2019s most recent one was paid out last year. Primer has also praised<\/a> President Donald Trump\u2019s AI policy<\/a> and advertises<\/a> on its website that it \u201chelps\u201d the Department of Homeland Security with data and intelligence work and that \u201cPrimer\u2019s AI platforms support DHS missions,\u201d but it does not appear to have an active deal with the department in a federal contracting database.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCait believes AI can be both an opportunity and a risk to the middle class and is determined to shape AI policy so that it grows and strengthens middle-class New Yorkers, rather than being used to further enrich billionaires,\u201d said Conley campaign manager Emily Goldson in a statement to The Intercept. \u201cShe\u2019ll be a leader in Congress, ensuring working Americans are included in the growth created and aren\u2019t left behind.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Running in a swing district north of New York City, Conley has walked a fine line on matters of immigration and the national security apparatus, blasting<\/a> Trump for deploying the military to U.S. cities and criticizing immigration agents for killing protesters. On her campaign website, she pledges<\/a> to \u201cstand strong on our national security priorities,\u201d including \u201cdefending the homeland, fighting crime, and fixing our broken immigration system.\u201d<\/p>\n Conley\u2019s close ties to companies at the intersection of AI and national security policy aren\u2019t a surprise given her military background. But her connections to the firms raise questions about how she might approach those policy sectors in Congress, said Albert Fox Cahn, a civil rights attorney who previously led the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project and is a lifelong resident of New York\u2019s 17th District.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAt a time when we see so many Silicon Valley companies having their technology weaponized against immigrant communities, these sorts of consulting roles raise questions about what exactly she did and what lines were drawn,\u201d Cahn told The Intercept.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s unclear what exactly Conley did at the companies, according to her candidate disclosure<\/a> filed with the House Clerk. She started consulting for Primer at some point after January 2024, when she left her previous job as an adviser for the Department of Homeland Security under Biden. In the period ending in July 2025, she earned $12,500 for her consulting work for that company.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Touting the candidate\u2019s military service, Goldson said that Conley \u201chas worked with a range of private and public sector entities, either through her work at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) or as a consultant, to help keep American families and American infrastructure, like stadiums and other public spaces and our energy grid, safe from terrorist attacks.\u201d The campaign did not comment on The Intercept\u2019s questions about whether Conley was still employed by either firm.<\/p>\n Between January 2024 and July 2025, Conley earned $68,000 from Hidden Level, which works in radio-frequency sensing and airspace security, including monitoring unauthorized drone activity. Hidden Level\u2019s data is used in Palantir\u2019s Maven platform, which Trump\u2019s Pentagon awarded a $480 million contract<\/a> in May. When Trump announced his plan to build a \u201cgolden dome\u201d missile defense system \u2014 described<\/a> by one critic as \u201cmore of a political marketing scheme than a carefully thought-out defense program\u201d \u2014 Hidden Level released a statement<\/a> applauding his plan and saying it \u201cstands ready to support this mission today.\u201d Of a White House directive to cut waste in commercial technology in April, the company said the \u201cpolicy shift doesn\u2019t just validate the model Hidden Level was built on, it demands it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018\u2018I get nervous when people are quick to invoke the language of national security and counter-terrorism. It raises more questions than it answers.\u201d<\/p>\n Both companies have received lucrative contracts from the federal government under previous administrations. Primer has won at least $7.2 million in contracts from the Department of Defense since 2021, according to federal spending records<\/a>. Hidden Level earned just under $3 million in Pentagon contracts to monitor airspace and bolster the federal system that manages drone traffic between 2022 and 2024 under former President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen just how brazenly people can manipulate the label \u2018national security and counterterrorism\u2019 and the ways it can mask government efforts aimed at people who never pose a threat to our country. As a civil rights lawyer and activist, I get very nervous when people are quick to invoke the language of national security and counter-terrorism,\u201d said Cahn, the civil rights lawyer. \u201cIt raises more questions than it answers.\u201d<\/p>\n The seat in suburban New York, which includes north Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, and Dutchess counties, is a top priority for Democrats. It was one of four New York House seats the party lost to Republicans amid a slew of upsets<\/a> in the 2022 midterms. The winner of the June Democratic primary will take on Lawler, a Republican who flipped the seat that cycle after a combination of redistricting and Democratic infighting<\/a> helped him beat former Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conley is one of six candidates running for the Democratic nomination. Other contenders include local official and tech founder Peter Chatzky, who has funded his own campaign with more than $10 million; Rockland County Legislator Beth Davidson; lawyer and former television reporter Mike Sacks; nonprofit executive Effie Phillips-Staley; and Air Force veteran John Cappello.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conley has campaigned on her military experience and highlighted the fact that the Russian government banned her from the country<\/a> because of her work on Biden\u2019s National Security Council. She said she hopes voters in the swing district will see her lack of traditional political experience as a positive. \u201cWe need people who take public service seriously, who are not politicians, who are actual leaders and problem solvers,\u201d Conley told<\/a> the New York Times in March.<\/p>\n Her campaign originally focused primarily on issues of affordability and improving Hudson Valley infrastructure, including criticizing Trump\u2019s economic policies. As the campaign progressed, Conley has become more aggressive<\/a> in criticizing Trump\u2019s intensifying attacks on cities around the country and his nationwide crackdown on immigrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n Goldson said that Conley believed in holding ICE accountable, investigating the officials responsible for the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, and impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. \u201cCongress must pass legislation ensuring ICE operates lawfully like local law enforcement, including banning masks and requiring judicial warrants for arrest, and sending CBP back to the border where it belongs,\u201d she added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lawler, meanwhile, has urged<\/a> immigration agents to \u201creassess their current tactics,\u201d while refraining from criticizing Trump.<\/p>\n We\u2019re independent of corporate interests \u2014 and powered by members. Join us. <\/p>\n Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n Thank You For Joining! <\/p>\n \n Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. <\/p>\n Will you take the next step to support our independent journalism by becoming a member of The Intercept?\n <\/p>\n By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Use<\/a>.<\/p>\n Conley has faced criticism<\/a> throughout the campaign \u2014 much of it from Republicans \u2014 for not voting in recent midterm elections and registering as a Democrat just before she launched her campaign. Critics attacked her for moving to the district in January from Virginia, though she grew up in the Hudson Valley.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her detractors have pointed out that many of her donors come from outside the district, several of them from the defense and tech industries.<\/p>\n Conley has received $10,000 in contributions from Matt and Kimberly Grimm, the former of whom is the co-founder of Anduril Industries<\/a>. Anduril, which was heavily backed by Thiel, builds autonomous drones, systems to surveil the border, and surveillance towers<\/a> powered by AI.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of questions to answer, and I think that this is true for candidates across the country who have worked for these companies in the past or who you know are receiving large donations from their employees,\u201d Cahn said. \u201cThere\u2019s a growing recognition that many of these tech firms are carrying out a mission that is fundamentally at odds with the values that Democrats hold and most Americans hold.\u201d<\/p>\n Conley\u2019s donors also include a vice president and other employees at the top Washington lobbying firm BGR group, which has represented the Saudi government \u2013 until it cut ties with the country in 2018 \u2013 and companies like defense giant Raytheon and the energy behemoth Chevron, as well as big pharmaceutical firms. BGR vice president Joel Bailey gave Conley\u2019s campaign $500 in July, while BGR principals Syd Terry and Fred Turner each also gave Conley\u2019s campaign $250. BGR senior director Hai Peng has given $5,500 to Conley\u2019s campaign since May. None of the BGR donors listed residences in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement to The Intercept, Peng said he met Conley at Oklahoma\u2019s Fort Sill close to two decades ago and made the contribution in his personal capacity. \u201cI genuinely believe she is the kind of leader our country needs right now,\u201d Peng said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conley has been endorsed by several political action committees including MD PAC, previously known as Majority Democrats PAC, which has given $90,900, VoteVets, Equality PAC, and Giffords PAC. She\u2019s also endorsed by several local officials and political leaders, as well as Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y.\u00a0<\/p>\n Cahn said he wasn\u2019t sure who, if anyone, he would vote for in the primary. But he sees the race as an example of the opportunity voters have to hold Democrats to a higher standard of accountability than in the past, particularly when it comes to policy issues like technology, surveillance, and artificial intelligence.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re at a new moment of accountability within the tech sector more broadly, as we start to recognize that so many tech companies are part of the apparatus that is powering ICE\u2019s attacks,\u201d Cahn said. \u201cThis is especially notable for someone who\u2019s running based off of their time in military defense roles.\u201d<\/p>\n
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