AI Workers, Led by Anthropic Staff, Give Tens of Thousands to Minnesota Candidates

Employees of Anthropic and other AI companies have donated tens of thousands of dollars to Minnesota candidates from both parties ahead of next week's midterm elections, the Minnesota Star Tribune reports. Anthropic workers are the biggest AI donors: they gave more than $60,000 to Democrat Peggy Flanagan's US Senate campaign, $53,000 to her primary opponent Angie Craig, $46,000 to Amy Klobuchar's bid for governor and $35,000 to Republican Representative Tom Emmer, campaign finance reports show.

All of the Anthropic workers who gave to Flanagan signed a July statement asking the US government "to support an international effort to develop the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier of automated AI development." State reports also show Anthropic staffers gave $550,000 to the DGA Victory Fund, the Minnesota account of the Democratic Governors Association.

Executives and employees at Duluth based Anno.AI, which develops unmanned vehicles, gave more than $45,000 to Republican Representative Brad Finstad. AI employee money is a small part of overall fundraising: Flanagan's campaign raised around $11 million this cycle as of mid October. A Star Tribune/KARE 11 Minnesota Poll found 71% of voters favor government regulation of the AI industry.